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Originally Posted by OtterBooks
E-ink readers are not a part of the computer world.
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I'd agree it isn't marketed as a general purpose computer. But neither were the first real programmable stored program electronic computers that, in the late 1940's, calculated missile trajectories. And neither were the Palm PDA's I used before getting the Kindle. Automotive GPS? Similar story. They are general purpose computers which the manufacturers lock down for marketing reasons. Then, independent programmers find ways around the superficial lockdowns, so that some people read books on their GPS while others use their Kindle as a calculator.
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Yes they're electronic and contain a microprocessor, much like a thousand other things that aren't computers.
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Well, yes, an airliner, say, isn't a computer. It has a bunch of computers inside it, though. Some are truly single purpose at a hardware level, but others are rootable general purpose computers, running general purpose operating systems and programmed with general purpose languages despite being locked down for a specific use.
In theory, people could design a electronic eReader that wasn't a lightly locked down general purpose computer. But you would have to do so much specialized engineering that it would be too expensive.
I've seen people here say what you are saying before and, as a computer programmer professionally, am genuinely missing the point.