Environment:
Windows XP
Java JDK 1.6.0_11 (any 1.6 probably works)
Any modern CPU should work.  Mine is 32 bit – not sure about 64 bit.
The emulator takes ~300MB of memory so you’ll probably want at least 1GB.I’ve got 2GB

1 – Download and install VirtualBox
(http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads).  I am using version 2.2.4

2 – Download and install the SDK.
Palm has the SDK available for free download.  I think registration is required.
link: http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&layout=page&id=1788

3 – Start the Emulator.
When the SDK finishes installing you should see a “Palm Emulator” icon on your desktop.  Open it.

The emulator should start up and it should look like this:

Linux kernel starting

The splash screen

Finished!

Ok, you’ve got your emulator running.  Now its time for the fun part.  Lets make a program!

4 – Open up your command prompt (start-run-”cmd”).   If you’re running vista, make sure you run “cmd” as Administrator.  Navigate to ‘Program Files\Palm\SDK\bin’.  Type in “palm-generate helloWorld” to create the shell of a hello world program.  The output should say “Generating new_app in C:\Program Files\Palm\SDK\bin\helloWorld”

5 – Go into your new helloWorld directory and modify index.html.  Now we’re just programming a web page!

Hello World

6 – once you’ve modified and saved index.html, go back to the command prompt and run “palm-package helloWorld”.  It should create a .ipk file in the bin directory.

7 – run “palm-install <name of .ipk file>”  Mine got named ‘com.yourdomain.helloworld_1.0_all.ipk’.  At this point you will want to make sure that your emulator is still running.

7 – Go to your emulator and run the program!

8- Profit!

6/28/2009-updated with hardware specs

5/1/2010 – linked to SDK download through palm.com