That being said, I think Google is probably right about Honeycomb not being ready for public release. In particular, the amount of trouble they've had modifying Honeycomb to handle 7-inch tablets (and based on the reviews of the Acer Iconia A100 they've failed so far - last I heard Kindle doesn't work!) is a pretty serious indictment of Honeycomb. Especially when you consider that pre-Honeycomb, Android didn't have any trouble handling screen sizes that differed by a similar margin (consider a 4.3 or 4.5" flagship handset vs a small phone or Blackberry-style form factor).
It's not a great position to be in. As a Nook owner I take Google's "open" stance with a serious grain of salt. It's a bit like Animal Farm, it's open, but some parts are more open then others, you just have to be a certain animal to get it. It's for your own good.
On my Nook Color it works, barely. I get crashes in the browser, have issues getting apps available from the Market etc.
An amazing effort, but not the same as something built from source and which can have defects fixed if they get frustrating enough to me ;-)
Unfortunately Not. Honeycomb is closed source (aside if the kernel) and only available to a few OEMs.
Google maintains that it's just not ready for public release, but that was nearly a year ago now, so I wouldn't be surprised if Gingerbread was the last public release. Even more so with the recent purchase of Motorola.
(though I'd love to be proven wrong by Google of course)