i've never had an e-book reader and i'm now thinking of getting one, please help me out raddle horde!
do any of you own one? what are the differences? there's so many out there, i've tried to get a broad overview but it's exhausting
can i read illegally downloaded books on all of them or do i have to do something for that?
i'd like one that can do epub and pdf, i'd like it if it wasn't necessary to connect it to the internet, also do you have to make an account with these things?
No, I have a paperwhite. I download from b-ok.cc, send the epubs into callibre, and plug my Kindle into my computer via USB. Callibre recognizes the kindle and everything is straightforward from there.
thanks for the informative reply! i already use calibre, albeit not for conversion purposes, but it's good to know i can use it for that should i get a kindle.
i'll buy second hand cause i'm both cheap and poor, so you know. i wouldn't mind it if it were small, the easier it's transportable the better. Reading PDFs would be neat, but it's not a necessity. From what you said i take it you can't zoom in in a PDF then? Backlights are a good idea!
would you say it doesn't matter what version of a kobo/kindle i get? i can't tell the differnence
I don't remember but I don't consider pdfs usable on mine.
I'm not that knowledgeable, but yeah the backlight and screen size are the only things that matter for me going forward. You could check on callibre's website if they're compatible with the version you want to buy.
I have a Boox ereader. I like it, but much more expensive than an old kindle would be. It can be set so Wi-Fi is off on startup but it’s very easy to turn it on, go to z-lib and download whatever books I want. It runs a modified version of Android so it can sideload apks.
is boox the same as onyx boox? because damn those are expensive :D the newer versions anyways. directly downloading does sound nice though.
Ya i bought it used but it’s still expensive lol and I don’t think I’ve gotten my moneys worth it out of it yet because I don’t read enough.
i'm reading an old submission abt the same topic and there's advertising on e-readers? wahht
i'm now reading all the comments of said submission and i'm starting to feel like this gif where someone reads a piece of paper and then goes:
hmm
mhhm
oooh yeah sure
yeah, i know some of these words
Don't buy it if you can't put a free operating system on it.
how do i know that though? i'm guessing it doesn't say so on the package
If it's Amazon, they're gonna remotely delete your Orwell. It seems that Kindle runs a modified version of Ubuntu which is cool-ish, but it's difficult to swap the stock Amazon firmware. Also, Amazon's record on home-spy-devices, like Echo and Ring, is piss poor.
If you find some ebook reader that doesn't connect to the internet and phone home to receive updates then it could be considered more like a microwave oven and I wouldn't worry too much. But if it's running Linux and connected to wifi, then that's a very capable backdoored device to introduce into your home.
Edit: As @moonlune pointed out, Amazon runs ads on (some) Kindles. That's another issue with the OS being proprietary.
kindle source code is available, so it's kinda free-ish.
I liked the minimalist look of the software on the Kobo. Books are simple to load onto device via micro SD or micro USB. Any filetypes should work and you can even install KOReader as an alternative document viewer application via sideload.
There's this:
Amazon is having a Kindle sale ATM FYI.
moonlune wrote (edited )
I have an old kindle I got second hand for 20$. It's pretty cool. I pirate everything I read, callibre is a software that automatically convert foss formats to the proprietary amazon one. My kindle is small and the conversion is not great for equations and technical books with lots of figures but it's good for stuff with words.
If I were to change anything I'd look for a kindle with backlights, so I can read it in bed without lights. And maybe a bigger screen in order to read PDFs but those are still expensive so I'll wait a few years for my kindle to break and hopefully the second hand market will have bigger screens by then.
If you want to buy new, kobo and kindle are the two main brands. Kobo slightly better software, kindle slightly cheaper. AFAIK you can find kindle source code so it's probably possible to buy the kindle with the ads for cheaper and flash the new ad-less code on it. Buy e-readers with big screens if you need to read PDFs.