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Well, it CAN be hacked - in theory. In reality, it takes a lot more effort... because of the many things that AximBigFan and Mokubai have already posted. To add to their points, I'd like to point out the following arguments which may be marshalled against them:
1) "Why can't it be hacked? The phones at the XDA-Developers Forum get hacked all the time!" - I'll be the first to point out that most of those phones they're hacking have identical, or near-identical hardware, when it comes to the ROM image changes that they're posting. Most of them are at least in the same family, if not simply revisions of the previous model. This makes it a LOT easier on the people doing the homebrew - they can apply their knowledge of the previous ROM and its drivers to the current set and be reasonably certain that they won't completely screw up the ROM image when putting it together.
2) "Why isn't it legal? Windows Mobile 6 is available to download, and they post these at the XDA-Developers Forum!" - Recently, Microsoft took action against the people at XDA-Developers, basically sending them an email to 'cease and desist - or else'. In compliance with the demands of Microsoft, ROM images have been or are being removed from the site. This has previously been mentioned on this board, from what I remember.
3) "It can't be that hard - that Football guy did it." - he sure did, and he did an amazing job trying to translate a ROM from one device to another. However, even with his relatively well-done job, there were problems with the Broadcomm drivers, the CF card didn't work at all (and that's a very basic function), and there were other issues reported with the image in question. The problem is only compounded because ROM images are NOT the equivalent of a desktop Windows install CD; they're IMAGES of the OS, which is the equivalent of a CD or DVD with a Windows disk image shipped from a manufacturer for a specific model of computer - if you try to put it onto another system with different hardware... it may not work, and the drivers won't be handy.
To sum up - in theory, the ROM image can be 'hacked'... but it's less a 'hack job' that means bypassing some sort of security lock to allow it to be installed on another device, and more a dissection of the ROM image followed by careful reconstruction using a Frankensteinian-style collection of drivers and software modules, which might work on the device without screwing up anything in particular.
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