Pre-alpha build of webOS shown running on a Nexus S smartphone

A team of volunteers at Phoenix International Communications have managed to port webOS onto a Samsung Nexus S. The feat was pulled off by running an app inside Android so it’s not a true-to-life port but either way, it’s a starting point for what could be coming at a later date.

The port in still an early pre-alpha build so as you can imagine, there’s a ton of room for improvement. Engadget points out that the operating system is very slow – zombie-like, in fact.

But if development continues, it’s very possible that users might one day be able to load the OS within Android for a convenient dual-booting phone that wouldn’t need to be restarted. This of course would be beneficial as users could run apps inside of both operating systems.

HP’s decision to suddenly jettison webOS last year took many in the tech industry by surprise. But much to the delight of those in the coding community, HP ultimately decided to release the source code for webOS this year. By September, they had released more than 450,000 lines of code and 75 webOS components.

Keep in mind that this isn’t the first time we have seen webOS ported to an Android-based system. In September, the webOS Ports Team managed to load the OS onto a Galaxy Nexus. It reportedly took them about two months to get it up and running on the phone but they were eventually able to get it to do most things that a normal mobile phone could do – it even had Wi-Fi access. Key features like texting and making calls still had to be worked out, however.