Barriers to Replacement OS?

[em73]

First, thanks to everyone who's posted so far! It's nice to see an interesting discussion around this topic.

Just to establish the rationale behind the original thought: I've always been someone who tinkers with my devices and tries to get the most out of them. I understand that some ereaders, like Kobo devices, are essentially "appliances for reading." That's fine for most people, but it would be very interesting if they could be more than that for those willing to tinker. Something like Inkbox/Quill OS, or a more traditional lightweight Linux distro, can be more than the default "Kobo Linux distro." The principle of being more inherently open and flexible to customization in both user interface and usable software. Also, the Kobo hardware is just better as a whole. Kobo makes spare parts more available now through iFixit. And they are cheaper for similar/better hardware quality than other ereaders in their price points.

The functionality of a more Android-based ereader is really appealing, but so many of them have baked in features that can't be removed without extreme efforts (general bloatware, uncalled for AI features, etc). Their firmware is also still locked down, and they practically all come from companies that are less GPL compliant.

Honestly, being able to turn something like the Kobo Libra Colour into a color, "diet Pine Note" would be really awesome if it was possible, even if the hardware as a general purpose computer is still on the constrained or mediocre side. But I'm sure Kobo doesn't really want that sort of thing regardless of how interesting we think it would be. It's just a thought I found interesting and wanted to explore with people more experienced and knowledgeable than me.

[elinkser]

Originally Posted by em73

...Honestly, being able to turn something like the Kobo Libra Colour into a color, "diet Pine Note" would be really awesome if it was possible, even if the hardware as a general purpose computer is still on the constrained or mediocre side. But I'm sure Kobo doesn't really want that sort of thing regardless of how interesting we think it would be...

Yes, in case DNSB's comment was lost in the noise:

"Also some of the newer Kobo OS are enabling security features such as secure boot."

[elinkser]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

As I say, you have to find somebody who shares your fun And I don't know if there is a lot of market for those PDA. I still have the russian phone which has a LCD (or whatever) screen and an eink screen. You could run almost all the apps in the eink screen, but not very useful in that screen.

Wow, that was news to me, that there was such a Russian phone.
And here it is:

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/yotaphone-2-review/

Sounds like just the kind of thing I would have drooled over, but at 860 $US, it would have been from afar.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by elinkser

Wow, that was news to me, that there was such a Russian phone.
And here it is:

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/yotaphone-2-review/

Sounds like just the kind of thing I would have drooled over, but at 860 $US, it would have been from afar.

I remember it. The only real value of the eink was to keep displaying a map or text whenthe battery went flat.

Back in 2007 or 2008 Philips did a folding eink only phone. Sort of rolled up. So was too fat for a pocket! They sold that division and the eventual owner buried it.

I designed a clamshell eink 4G VOIP phone in 2007 that was never made. I thought a clamshell was better to protect the screen. So the idea of the Danger Phone phone and Motorola Flip combined with eink. It was also partly inspired by the Nokia Communicator I had in 2001.

Remember MS bought a phone company and killed it before Nokia's phone division?
Microsoft bought Danger Inc. in Sept. 2008 for $500 million.

I think a better idea than the Blackberry format.

In the end Qualcom bought the 4G company Flarion and buried it, so our 4G before LTE as alternate to Wimax died.

It turned out that eink isn't very good even for typing text. It's best for reading whole pages. You can't sensibly update per pixel, Entire blocks have to be reset and redrawn.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by elinkser

Wow, that was news to me, that there was such a Russian phone.
And here it is:

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/yotaphone-2-review/

Sounds like just the kind of thing I would have drooled over, but at 860 $US, it would have been from afar.

I think I bought it by less than 100€ at that moment.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I remember it. The only real value of the eink was to keep displaying a map or text whenthe battery went flat.

Or reading