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 <[email protected]> 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 <[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? > >
