I wanna buy an ebook reader but i don’t want any amazon or other companies shit in there, just something i can connect to my pc, pass ebooks in different formats into it and read.
I’ve looked into this in the past and settled on Kobo. You can disable the telemetry and never use the the Rakuten account part and have a very good ereader… And you can install the open source KOReader software.
https://github.com/koreader/koreader
MobileRead forums and wiki are a good resource for ebook stuff.
For example, a breakdown of the hidden configs on Kobo devices https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Configuration_Options
+1 on this. Kobos actually use Linux under the hood. And although the default UI is proprietary, it’s super easy to install KOReader.
You don’t even need to hack into it some custom firmware, just a sideloader, which normally doesn’t break even if you actually updated the base firmware.
Here the official tutorial on how to do it: https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Kobo-devicesAFAIK every single ebook reader on the market actually runs Linux under the hood!
in parts of europe you can get some kobos branded as “tolino” - they have the same hardware, but actually run on android
My kobo is great. You never have to connect it to the internet if you don’t want to. I transfer epub files to it via USB.
Same here. I only buy drm-free from ebooksdotcom, and transfer them with
calibercalibre. My kobo wifi isn’t even configured.*Calibre. (link for those that don’t know it: https://calibre-ebook.com/)
Kobo readers are really neat, I’ve been using them for over a decade and I don’t remember ever using a Rakuten account or even going online with them for anything but software updates or connecting to my local library system (which Kindle can’t do). I use Calibre on the desktop to manage, convert and load my reader and that’s it.
I love my Remarkable 2. The company has a freemium model for its online services, but the device is lovely on its own and it’s Linux under the hood, with an active modding community delivering cool tweaks.
It looks awesome, but doesn’t seem to be that great as an ereader, though.
It really awesome when it comes to reading and annotating PDFs. That’s the main reason I got it — so many e-readers I’ve tried over the years have been horrible for PDF documents and as a professor that’s like 80% of my day. For ePub documents, it’s very capable now — even if that wasn’t the case a few software versions ago. That said, the experience is a bit idiosyncratic among e-reader devices. The Remarkable basically converts the ePub to a static document so that the UI can more or less treat it as a PDF, which is a different user experience than some other e-readers. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s different.
Second the remarkable. It works well enough that I haven’t even bothered to install any of the community extensions, though that would be easy since it’s just Linux and I can SSH into it to install packages.
Out of curiosity, what kind of tweaks?
Here are a few! There was also a whole wiki, RemarkableWiki.com, for a while where users shared technical tips and tricks. It’s not up at the moment and I’m not sure if it’s down permanently or only temporarily. My experience has been similar to @blusterydayve26@midwest.social — I bought the device because I liked how user-modifiable the software was, but once I had it in hand I found that official development was moving briskly enough with new features and UI improvements that I’ve never really had a reason to mod it. I have SSH’d into the device to set it up with a few of the trickier WiFi networks in my life, though, and can confirm that it’s a breeze.
Boox run android, so that might fit your title.
From your post content though it actually sounds like you’d be happy with a Kobo. You can easily transfer books and you can install third party open source reading software too.
Second on kobo, sure the OS is proprietary, but it’s good enough that I forget. And as the previous comment said, you can install third party reader software. I like koreader, it pretty much replaces the entire UI of the device
Take a look at pocketbook devices. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PocketBook_International
I have a Remarkable 2 as well that I love. But I also have an old Sony PRS-500 that is still kicking along and takes ePubs without any problems.
I’ve been very happy with my Vivlio Touch Lux 5 which is Linux based - https://www.vivlio.com/en/
That looks interesting. Looks like they only ship within the EU though.
i can connect to my pc, pass ebooks in different formats into it and read.
Sounds like you don’t need internet usage. In that case, you can use most ebook readers, including stuff with companies shit on it, and just never connect to the internet. If privacy is the concern, they can’t track you if you never connect to the Internet. You just need to make sure that it has a way to transfer files through usb and can handle epubs.
I think it depends on how invested you are in ebooks, and how much time you wanna spend on it. I would advise a Kobo if you aren’t up for Tinkering or an iPad if you are flexible with the screen.
But if you are up for a challenge a Chinese ePaper Android Tablet like Onyx Boox or Bouyee, so long as you can get Google Play to work. Or a Pocket Book if you can sort out DRM removal for ebooks.
Here are the pros and cons bellow
Kobo is the easy option.
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Adobe Digital Editions for non-kobo DRM, and library access. Its able to read DRM free books like you find on Project Gutenberg or Humble Bundle.
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Major downside is that you can’t read Amazon without effort (or a kindle serial number), book sorting kind of sucks without Calibre, and the storage size is small if you are into Comics.
iPad is the safe option
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Apple Books app is convenient and can read anything. It can sync with your iCloud if you wanna so you can continue on your iPhone. And DRM isn’t an issue since you can just download the apps.
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but its a LCD Tablet, and no ePaper display. iTunes isn’t the easiest to figure out to move books and iCloud can get verrry expensive if you are syncing comics.
Android Tablets are kind of in the same boat but…
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with KOReader even an old (but not too old) tablet is viable. Side loading official apps.
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OS updates are kind of hit or miss, support for older android is worse than iPad, and the devs don’t put as much effort in their Android ports.
Android ePaper tablet (Onyx Boox)
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Usually steals KOReader as its base, if its new probably has pen support so you can use it as a writing tablet, if it has Google Play you can get official apps
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But its expensive, there is often no updates to the OS, usually no MicroSD card, and has a lot of preinstalled bloat which is hard to trust.
Kindle Tablet/fire tablet
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Cons, its made by Amazon and will track your every movement.
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Pros keep it offline and it can read converted DRM free ebooks converted to AZW3 via Calibre. Fire Tablets can be made into cheap eReaders with side loading. But more importantly if you do give your kindle an Amazon account you can decrypt ebooks with its serial number. So you can get cheap books on a better eReaders.
Might be worth noting but you can jailbreak a wide array of Kindles to use KOReader opening up the device for even more file types.
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Your best bet for a no BS ebook reader might be this (if it where in stock): https://pine64.com/product/pinenote-developer-edition/
The PineNote won’t be in stock until the community of developers figure out a proper Linux based OS for it. I dig through the forums occasionally and they are making progress, but it won’t be soon.
Yeah, the development for the Pine products take their time, but I wouldn’t want to trade my PineTime for something else. Great gadget for an incredibly low price!
