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Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

nns.ee

31–40 of 51 posts

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#32
post #13
post #4

This is great! I've always wanted more hackable e-ink devices -- the Kindle is nice but it feels like there's so much unrealized potential of an e-ink screen.

The reMarkable is a pretty hackable eink device.

Unfortunately, it's only available in limited countries[1].

[1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/36000264593...

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#33
post #12

Amazon is still offering Kindle's with lifetime cellular connectivity [1]. I'm not sure what kind of arbitrage possibilities exist here... [1] https://www.amazon.com/All-new-Kindle-Paperwhite-Waterproof-...

Pretty limited. The cellular connection only connects to amazon.com and Wikipedia

You can write a proxy that creates a new page on Wikipedia with the requested URL. A remote machine then monitors the page, downloads the URL, and adds to a new Wikipedia page.

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#35
post #4

This is great! I've always wanted more hackable e-ink devices -- the Kindle is nice but it feels like there's so much unrealized potential of an e-ink screen.

You might be interested in Boox, https://www.boox.com/ . They run regular Android, so it's a fairly open dev environment. (Possibly even more standard than the reMarkable)

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#36
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reMarkable is a pretty hackable eink device.

Unfortunately, it's only available in limited countries[1]. [1] https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/36000264593...

Yeah. Sucks that it does not ship to India. Feels like the 80s again, where you tell your relatives and friends to get one for you when they return from abroad.

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#37
post #15
post #4

This is great! I've always wanted more hackable e-ink devices -- the Kindle is nice but it feels like there's so much unrealized potential of an e-ink screen.

Yeah, i imagine sitting out in the sun coding away. With modern laptops, you can't work even with a lamp behind you because of all the reflections.

Anti-glare coatings help somewhat (eg. most flagship Thinkpads seem to ship with them, though there’s a glossy 4K display option presumably for content creation & consumption).

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#38
post #23

Link to it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx386xpDqCY

That’s way better than I imagined. Would love to have seen some keyboard feedback by typing into the terminal screen.

I think it would be much more usable as a electronic signage display, however, rather than interactive... Or if you needed to manipulate anything in detail in the GUI, it would be less awkward to do it over VNC.

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#39
post #2

Obviously a valuable project to know about when you don't have enough dead badgers to hand. https://everything2.com/title/How+to+install+Linux+on+a+dead... (Originally documented in Strange Horizons magazine, but the original source appears to be offline.)

That's cool and all, but if you have a dead beaver you can put a whole computer in it:

https://www.instructables.com/Compubeaver---%3E-How-to-case-...

Re: Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

#40
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty limited. The cellular connection only connects to amazon.com and Wikipedia

The Kindle also comes with an "Experimental Browser". [1] I've used it on an old Kindle to read the news, craigslist. I'm not sure if it supports JS. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q7eHUI6rSo

The big problem with the Experimental Browser on my beloved Kindle DX is that it doesn't seem to support tls/https.

Otherwise I'd use it a lot more.

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