The Palm Pre has a very vibrant homebrew community.  Even before the official SDK was released by Palm applications were being written for the Palm Pre.  While the App Catalog hasn’t yet been updated at the time of this writing there are over fifty homebrew applications available.  While Palm hasn’t announced an official stance on homebrew applications many people are treating them as an extended beta test of applications they may be releasing once the App Catalog is opened up.  In this post we’ll cover what homebrew applications are, where to find them and how to install them.

What Is Homebrew?

Homebrew gets its name from the practice of individuals making their own beer.  Over time, the term began to be applied to developing applications for closed environments, such as consoles.  Homebrew was a particularly apt description for early developments on the Pre because, without a public software development kit (SDK) early coders had to reverse-engineer existing applications to figure out how to create and install applications.  Nowadays, with the SDK open for any to install homebrew isn’t quite as accurate a name.  In a future post we’ll discuss application development with webOS, the Palm Pre’s operating system.

Where To Find It

The largest repository of Pre homebrew is found at the PreCentral Homebrew Apps forum.  In the forum are many posts where software authors have uploaded links to their applications.  Today, there was an application for tracking your GPS coordinates during a run, a Chess game, and a sliding-block game, among others.  Explore the forum and read the comments to see what is available.  Homebrew applications are distributed as .ipk files.  .ipk files are packages that contain all the pieces an application needs to run on the Pre.

How To Install It

Anyone who has installed the SDK can easily download applications to the Palm Pre.  Once the SDK has been installed you use the ‘palm-install’ batch/script file to install the application.   There are instructions for PC and Mac at the PreCentral homebrew forum.  The Linux procedure is practically the same as the Mac procedure.  For PC users, there is a GUI installer called PreBrew that makes the process of installing applications easier.

Should You Install It?

The questions you should ask before you go installing homebrew applications is:  Should I install this?  Because Palm has not reviewed any of these applications there is always a security risk to installing them.  It is possible for a malicious coder to create an application that does things that you don’t expect, even potentially causing data loss.  Also, installing the SDK isn’t a simple undertaking.  If you don’t plan to be developing applications it may be best to avoid it.  [Update: The latest release of the Palm SDK no longer is causing problems on Windows or Mac OS during install].  Palm plans to be opening up the App Catalog in the Fall so if you’re squeamish about the process it would be best to wait.  If, however, you’re adventurous, then dive in, there’s lots to explore.