Well, they've done it. Or at least they've done about a third of it.

A group of iPhone hackers has managed to get a working copy of the Linux kernel running on both the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Granted, there's not a lot else to it. So far there's no support for flash storage, touchscreen, sound, or any of the wireless components, but if you've got a good working knowledge of the iPhone's innards and a working USB/Serial connection, you can install Linux on your iPhone.

And it only stands to get better from here. Now, the development team behind the project is looking to add support for more components and eventually make a Linux build the average user can run.

Some iPhone users are thinking even bigger. Some are even dreaming of a dual-boot handset that can run both the iPhone OS and the Google Android platform.

Now, I'll spare everyone the grandiose predictions or the sad attempt at fortune-telling, but it seems like there's still a long ways to go, and the road is rather bumpy.

After all, Apple does have a knack for finding "incompatibilities" with these sorts of projects every time they post an update, and certain components are going to be very hard to hack into and develop drivers for.

Still, you have to applaud the effort thus far. Groups like the Linux iPhone Team or the iPhone Dev Team do what they do strictly for fun. These sorts of projects require the time and brainpower that rivals what most commercial hardware and software companies can do, and these guys don't get a penny for their work (though they are accepting hardware and pizza donations.)

Congrats to the members of the project. Definitely a very cool achievement.