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 <[email protected]> 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?
