Well, I hate "me too" posts, but...me too.
I just discovered Nook was hackable today and have been reading all over, but honestly, I don't know how to do it (bear in mind, it took me four weeks of reading before flashing my phone), AND...
I don't know what the Nook "looks like" after you do it. Is it a Nook with more features (i.e., still a reader, but more)? Is it a tablet computer and not reader-centric any more? Is it one thing if run from the card and still Nook if run without the card? What?
And guide writer, whoever you turn out to be, you will have more friends than you know what to do with.
DISCLAIMER: this is based on my limited understanding as a noob. It may be missing in some details, but as "a general idea", it should be fine.
I cant give you an efficient walkthrough of the "how-to"s but I'll give an overview so you can know what your dealing with. The "how-to"s are already existing all over xda, theyre just intimidating when you dont know what they mean and they appear like an intermingled mess.
As I see it there are basically three different paths for hacking your Nook. First you have to decide which one you want to try, narrow it down to a particular ROM or build, then use that particular "how-to". Then its not so bad.
1. Root the original B&N software, keeping the e-reader centric OS in tact,
adding the ability to install other android features such as the Android
Market (i.e all sorts of apps like youtube, etc) as well as the ability to
overclock your processor (speed up the device). All the threads with "Auto-
nooter" in the title refer to this method.
2. Run a bootable version of android via an SD card. This puts a full
version of Android OS like Froyo (2.2) or Honycomb (3.0) on an SD card
which you can then put in the Nook. Turn it on and you boot into a full
Android experience. You will not have the B&N e-reader software but you can
install the Nook app from the market and sync your B&N purchases (its not
as fancy, but it gets the job done). This is one of the easier methods and it is
also nice to be able to take the SD card out anytime and boot into your
original device untouched. All the threads with "Bootable, SD card, SD
bootable, etc" refer to this.
3. The third method is EMMC. This, like the second method, replaces the B&N e-
reader software, but the difference is it actually installs an Android system
onto the Nooks internal hardware instead of running off an SD card. For this
you use ClockworkMod and the process isnt that intimidating once you
actually get started and just follow the instructions. (took me two weeks to
face it. once i did it was fairly straight forward).
In my opinion each has its pros and cons, but these are mostly due to my personal preferences. I dont have so much know-how so firstly I want things to be retard proof "one-click" simple. Others may not have this criteria.
I personally like bootable SDs but for me the only real draw back is that the ROM i prefer the most is not available as a bootable SD (at least not yet...
) (mad-murdock has done a great job
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1002000)
If you want me to point you in any particular direction (a how-to or a ROM, etc) based on my limited experience as a noob, just PM me. I'll write back according to what I may have learned. Just dont bother asking about the first method, it seemed to complicated to get the market working so I never tried it.