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Running a full desktop environment on a Kindle (2019)

nns.ee

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

#41
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.

I’m pretty into the remarkable and run a Twitter account retweeting content. (@rehackable - inspired by the GitHub repo of the same name)

The RM1 was pretty well modded, but the RM2 is currently somewhat stuck due to a missing frame buffer driver. Some good people are working hard on it though and it seems like it’ll be solved fairly soon. [0]

[0] https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-framebuffer/

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

#42
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been a whole ecosystem of homebrew Kindle software on and off for a while, some of which add some nice functionality like a better PDF reader. Not sure about current status of efforts, but I played around with it a few years ago and it was reasonably lively back then. Amazon offers a "subsidized" version with some minimal ads that is $20 cheaper, that suggests to me that they are selling it at cost or at leas…

Keep the ads! At least they are book covers. The non-ad version has horrible lock screen images.

Agreed, I've discovered a few interesting books thanks to the ads. And they are no more intrusive than the non-ad lock screens.

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

#44
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...

Kindle too, which doesn't stop me from using it in one of those "unsupported countries" for the past decade.

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

#45
post #33
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think the Wikipedia editors would ban the proxy's IP pretty quickly for making junk pages.

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

#46
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reMarkable is a pretty hackable eink device.

It suffers a lot from the low storage, which is enough to keep me from wanting one even as a consumer device, let alone to hack on it.

USD $ 450 (price) buys 72 reams of paper (amazon) which also requires a lot of storage :^)

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

#47
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)

I had put a order in for a RM2, then found out about Boox and their Note Air and decided to give it a try.

Have had it for a few days now, and loving it. Went ahead and cancelled my RM2 order, the Boox seems to have the Remarkable beat in every category outside of the hardware look and supposedly it feels slightly nicer to write on, but I'm having 0 issues taking notes on the Boox Air.

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

#49
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)

I've been interested in their products for a while, but don't wish to support a company that violates open source licenses proudly:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hk7d5v/onyx_is_v...

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