[libreplanet-discuss] e-book Readers

[postmaster]

 Hello,

 I'm new to LibrePlanet but am better known on the FSF Community Team 
list.

 Recently I've been asked to advise people on prospective purchases of 
e-book readers. Fathers day is fast approaching and in the UK Tesco (our 
largest supermarket chain) are heavily promoting the Amazon Kindle...a 
dire choice for any who would wish to avoid DRM and vendor lock in in 
general. There are so many reasons why we ought not to support these 
devices I won't bore you with a long list here.

 I've countered Kindle advertising by suggesting the Barnes & Noble 
Colour Nook either with a custom ROM or rooted so as to add the GPL 
licensed FB Reader:

http://www.fbreader.org/

 Another option would be the Aldiko Reader:

http://aldiko.com/index.html

 See an Ars-Technica article for a comparative review of these 
products...though I don't share its conclusion.

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2010/09/hands-on-reading-e-books-on-android-with-aldiko.ars

 Aldiko Reader is free but not under a copyleft license and it includes 
advertising so it is a much less desirable option compared to FB 
Reader...the only thing, of note, that I see in its favour is that it 
can read .pdf format ebboks yet this capability is planned to be added 
to FB Reader in the future. I would thus not accept Ars recommendation 
and would wish to promote the GPL licensed FB Reader.


 So...I hope the above is of use to anyone who has the ear of potential 
ebook reader purchasers and wonder if anyone else has suggestions for 
ebook reader options that preserve the rights and freedoms of their 
purchasers and end users?

David Nash

P.S. It is not in our remit to aid adoption of the epub format as it is 
specifically engineered to help support the adoption of DRM in ebooks. 
In my suggestions above I'm at pains to offer a solution that allows one 
to gift unlimited copies of each ebook to others without restricting the 
freedoms of lenders or lendees. It seems that ebooks and their 
associated readers are now a fact of our lives so I hope we may find a 
way to nullify their worst, restrictive and freedom eliminating traits.