Submitted by AgitatedStatesOfAmazement in freeAsInFreedom
I've been thinking about getting an e-ink ebook reader (a la Kindle, Nook, Kobo), but they all seem to be part of their own companies' respective walled gardens and allow very little freedom to modify their software. Is anyone aware of an e-reader which is capable of running a free operating system, or at least running unsigned software through some sort of rooting process? My fallback choice is Kobo because it seems to have the best support for sideloading books of different formats on an SD card (including CBZ, HTML, TXT, etc), but I'd rather something I have full software control of and which doesn't require me to sign up for anything.
jaidedctrl wrote
You should get one of the Kobos that can run Debian-- like the Kobo Mini.
Check the installation here. It's not perfect, but it's probably the closest you can get to fully libre on a e-ink e-reader. I've looked a lot for one.
There is, hypothetically, another better and more perfect option: the Wikireader was a fully libre device dedicated to reading Wikipedia-- but you can easily execute your own compiled C programs on it. I got one a while back, intending to write a simple e-reading program... but then I broke the screen like an idiot. I'd love to give it another go, but I can't seem to find one anywhere! :ss