Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Best e-reader for free software compatibility

[Jan Prunk]

Hello !

If you are looking to invest some work into freeing up any of the modern devices I would be interested to contribute in some way, maybe in a form of setting up the website, git depositories etc (I don't code). I do have an Openinkpot device, which battery has been depleted and without ordering a new one it would be impossible to make it work again. One possibility would be taking over the Openinkpot code and making some parts of it to be fully free code, then you would get a functional free distribution for already supported devices. Going with a totally new modern device would surely mean investing a lot more work into the code and also into reverse engineering.

Kind regards,

Jan

On Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 12:47 AM, Michael Lamb <mike@datagrok.org> wrote:

I'm currently investigating the Kobo e-readers. While the bundled
software is proprietary, it might not be impossible to eventually
develop Free Software replacements for it. The software is
single-purpose (not Android-based) and built upon GNU/Linux and the QT
toolkit (http://www.qt.io/)

Unfortunately the last free software replacement effort I knew of for
devices like these http://openinkpot.org is abandoned. Kobo
nevertheless looks promising to me because:

- Kobo obeys the GPL and releases the source they are required to. (Or
at least, they have in the past, for at least some of their system):
https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Reader

- Some (like the $90 Kobo Touch 2.0) are built upon a Freescale i.MX6
Solo Lite processor. The Novena community is working to Free the GPU
on the more powerful versions of the Freescale i.MX6, so I hope this
implies the Solo Light version will work with stock Linux kernels
without issues.
http://www.kosagi.com/w/index.php?title=Novena_Main_Page

Unfortunately, I have no idea what the touchscreen, display, and wifi
hardware in the Kobo Touch 2.0 is, or if it requires nonfree firmware
or drivers.

If I can somehow confirm that it hasn't been made *impossible* to
develop free replacement software for use on the device, that's good
enough for me, given that most devices require herculean
reverse-engineering efforts to even get started, if they don't
restrict the user from modifications altogether.

On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 9:59 PM, Koz Ross <koz.ross@retro-freedom.nz> wrote:
> I've been looking at Defective By Design, and would like to switch several of my family members over to something better than their Swindles. However, the site only talks about DRM, not software freedom - and I would really prefer a free-software-friendly e-reader. Which ones are good in this regard?