im thinking of getting an ereader, but cant find many foss devices. i dont plan on connecting it to the internet, so i suppose it doesnt matter if its controlled by amazon right? love to hear your thoughts…

  • cwagner@lemmy.cwagner.me
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    1 year ago

    There’s a nice comparison table here: https://ereaders.ewritable.com/e-reader-comparison-table/

    Pro of Kindle: Amongst the cheapest devices.
    Con: the UI kinda sucks (though I don’t have a comparison to others)

    If you go Kindle, get the Kid’s edition. It’s the same as the normal one, but doesn’t have ads. I’m also not sure if you can fully set it up without an Amazon account. Oh, and wait for a sale. Those happen very often.

          • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            Google it, but if you've got ebooks on a hard drive somewhere, you can easily transfer them to a kindle, no further purchases required.

            • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Sideloading ebooks is not the same thing as running alternative FOSS software on a device.

              • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 year ago

                Where there's a will, there's a way. I don't have the will to find out how to upload an alt OS to a kindle, but the Internet is vast and if ye seek, ye shall find.

                • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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                  1 year ago

                  I did look into it and I've yet to find a way to do this.

                  The FOSS community is not limitless and while some community might develop a way in the future, it most definetly is not trivial to do, just by googling. This is a niche topic and AFAIK quite hard to do (first getting custom firmware to run and then develop a FOSS OS for it… While probably not being paid to do so).

                  Your comments seem quite condescending. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt but I'd kindly advice you to adjust your tone a bit.

    • TrustingZebra@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Kindle devices are nice but not at all FOSS, and not very open either. Although you can sideload books, EPUB files are still not directly supported, you have to convert them. Converting is easy with Calibre but it's still a hassle that is not needed on any other ereader.

      There's a vibrant jailbreak community on MobileRead, however Amazon keeps blocking jailbreaks.

      After my Kindle died I got a Kobo instead. Costs about the same as Kindle (maybe slightly more?). Still not fully open, but supports EPUB and its MobileRead community is just as vibrant (and Kobo doesn't block you from doing this).

      • cwagner@lemmy.cwagner.me
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        1 year ago

        OP specifically asked for kindles, so I replied regarding kindles. Note that kindle support epub as well, now.