Like other geeks, I downloaded the Pre webOS SDK and installed it. While I don’t have time (I’m not sure where all my time goes) to actually write code (I’d have to learn Javascript which shouldn’t be too hard, but lack of time is the problem), I did want to at least kick the tires.
I didn’t quite know what to do with the SDK, but reading the “homebrew” forums over on precentral.net, led me to a program in the SDK called novaterm. I hooked up my Pre, ran novaterm, and then got a big smile on my face. Here I was executing commands on the Pre as root. I was able to use top, uptime, as well as navigate the directories. For most users, this doesn’t mean much, but I’m a huge Linux/UNIX fan and have been for years. There are just some things that you can only do on a command line or things that are faster to do with a command line. (Luckily Mac OS X gives me the best of both worlds; the beautiful GUI and a command line interface.)