I would like to install programs on either the hd 32gig or my sd card 16gig, not the phone memory. Is that an option?

Nope - this is all set by the package. Technically all apps should install to /opt however this is not the case with many of the test/devel apps and this is what leads to full root partitions.

So if say all programs were set to install to the device memory...they we are limited to the 1 gig of device memory for apps.

Dat sux!!!

Not a deal breaker as I dont need tons of apps anyway.
Thx for your reply.

There is some scope for experimentation if you're feeling adventurous. In principle if you can suitably partition a card, format it with an appropriate filesystem and arrange for it to be mounted on /opt, then you could install apps to it.

I stress 'in principle' and 'adventurous', however.

The apps don't install to device memory - that's only used for running apps. They install either to the root filesystem (about 250M on a dedicated high-speed flash), or to /opt (a 2GB partition on the built-in 32GB flash device) depending on the size of the app (and whether the the app has left development).

And I guess you're not limited to /opt, you can resize it if you want more space for apps.