[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by ekaser

eInk devices (currently, and probably indefinitely, due to the limitations required to make the battery last so dang long) can not:
1) Quickly flip through the pages of a book to locate something visually.
2) Quickly scan through your library to locate a book visually.
3) Allow the USER to select their preferred reading software.
4) Allow the USER to add applications to their device.

1 and 2 are true, but may not remain so. Newer display controllers have boosted the speed of eInk display refreshes, and innovations like the nook's color lower band to display covers point to more attention being paid to doing things like that.

3 is determined by an outside factor: what format is the ebook in? You use the software that can read that book, and confront whether that software can run on that device.

The Kindle, for example, uses the Mobipocket format. The Sony Reader uses BBLF but it shifting to ePub. The nook supports the legacy eReader format but uses ePub as a default. Other formats exist as well.

Some readers support a wider range than others, but some things are unlikely to happen because of vendor restrictions. Mobipocket, for example, insists on being the only DRM capable format on the device, so you are unlikely to see a dedicated reader device handling Mobipocket and secure ePub. If you license Adobe, Mobipocket won't sell you a license.

And 4 may change over time. At the press conference introducing the nook, the B&N developers indicated that they knew Android was becoming a popular platform, and there would be interest in the Android developer community in creating applications for the nook. They didn't commit to any time frame for offering an SDK to allow third-party development, but they didn't state they wouldn't support third-party development, either. The attitude was largely "One thing at a time. We want to get the device out there, develop the infrastructure to support it, fix lingering bugs and add features. When the dust settles, we'll see about opening it up to outside developers."

The current eInk devices are (and will likely remain, due to their power-hoarding requirements) purely "vendor-only software" devices.

The power-hoarding is a side-effect of the eInk display, as display refresh is the largest power consumer for handheld device. Applications running on the device are unlikely to be a factor.

Yes, there are small exceptions (running custom programs in FB reader, Open Inkpot, etc), but those are not (and never will be) terribly widely used (FB reader programs)

If I recall correctly, FBReader is already being bundled as the native software in at least one dedicated device, and it runs on a lot of platforms. I'd still call it a work in progress, but what's there is quite usable. It may become widely used sooner than you think.

or as QUICKLY (massively) flexible as a machine running a common, OPEN operating system onto which you can load pretty much anything (program-wise), without worrying about the power-hoarding requirements.

If you aren't concerned about power hoarding, and do want to load and run pretty much anything, you don't buy a dedicated reader. You buy a genuine multi-function device.

Criticizing a dedicated reader for not being a multi-function device is nonsensical. It isn't trying to be. It's intended to be a specialized tool to perform a specific job. It should be criticized on how well it does the job it was designed for, and not for all of the things it doesn't do. Shall we start criticizing MP3 players for only playing songs?

And "open" is a loaded word. "Open" as applied to operating systems usually means you can get the code for and modify the OS itself.

But the vast majority of users will never want to do that, let alone be able to if it's possible. They just want to run programs that perform tasks they want to do. Just about all OSes have public APIs and SDKs available to let third party developers create software for the platform. For example, there's a lot more software available for Windows than there is for Linux, even though both OSes run on X86 platforms.

I multiboot here, with Win2K, WinXP, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Puppy Linux in the mix. I can do the basics on any platform, but Windows isn't going away. Too much still requires Windows. The Gimp is wonderful, for example, but it isn't Photoshop.

And while open systems are wonderful, the open development model isn't a panacea. Consider why developers develop for open systems like Linux? Very few folks are in a position to get paid for doing so. Most do it to either scratch a personal itch ("What? It doesn't do that? I'm a programmer. I'll make it do that!") or for coolness factor ("I'm a Linux kernel hacker!")

So whether you get something is ultimately determined by whether a developer shared your itch, or thought it would be a cool thing to do. If neither of those is true, you may have a long wait for what you want.

I'm not in the market for a dedicated reader. I prefer multi-function devices to. But I understand the appeal of a dedicted reader, and the attractions of an eInk display.
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Dennis