Having reviewed the NOOKcolor myself, hands on and clicking, reading and watching videos, all that stuff firsthand, I can tell you that this little pad has some juice to it. But it’s locked down. It’s a closed system made so that only Barnes and Noble can allow apps in, and only apps they’ve approved, apps having to do with reading only. So what does the hacker community do when a GRAVE INJUSTICE like this goes down? They bust it open and free it up. You might remember a few weeks ago when NOOKcolor was Rooted, giving it eventually things like Android 2.2 Froyo and Android Marketplace, now what would you like? How about Ubuntu?

All hail XDA forum member devastatorx as he sets up a guide that shows all users the way toward getting Ubuntu to work on their NOOKcolor. The idea to do this, says devastatorx, came from the Ubuntu project on Nexus One (you’ll find, if you look, that Ubuntu is actually a popular operating system to hack-install on many devices, almost like it’s a dare everyone has to try to claim.) This is a work in progress, so says the people working on the project, so beware and be safe if you dare. You’ll have to be rooted for this hack to work (see the link above to attain this,) and all downloads are available in the XDA forum thread. Have fun!

Also note that Barnes and Noble has recently been dropping unexpected complete resets on hacked or otherwise suspicious NOOKcolors – any way to protect from this would be smart to think about!

[Via XDA Forum]