Yarrrrrr
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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When I got a kindle (10 years ago) I did it on the basis that it was possible to strip the DRM of the books and load them on another device. I'm not going to be tied to some shitty platform for ever more. I must say though that when I have bought books on other places, the process of stripping the DRM and getting the book onto the device has been an absolute ballache - presumably the same for any device when you're not using the native store.
I won't be going back to physical books though. I bought a hardback for the first time in ages and my wrists don't like it. Nor does my partner when I'm reading while they're trying to sleep.
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DRM on Kindle it's a known fact. That's why Richard Stallman calls it Swindle
My kindle only knows about library books.
I have an ereader and I've never bought an ebook. The fact that they're priced the same as paperbacks is absurd.
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This is why it sucks that physical print media is on the decline, because one could just scan their own PDFs or if possible epubs instead of dealing with this if physical print media was still commonplace.
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So they encrypt it via keys they download to protected storage.
I hope their market share will tank after a few public outrages. Make sure you're not one of the victims.
We'll soon be back to monks transcribing at this rate.
I think it was 10? years ago when I grudgingly tried a kindle because it was so ridiculously cheap and the people around me loved theirs.
The Kindle was an Ad bomb. After engaging internet only, no TV, no ads, since, 2003? (Whenever xfiles, Buffy, DS9, and Firefly were done.) The kindle hit like a sledgehammer with the native ads system. I returned the failed tablet to Amazon.
I don’t know how people live with that level of ad consumption and I grew up with TV commercials. Libby on iPad mini. It’s fine.
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OK, so kindle is off the list of potential readers.
Any recommendations for a good reader that can do epub, PDF, and maybe even html with CSS?
I have a Kobo and it does OK. Nothing special.
I like my kobo
Also saying Kobo. I've got the Kobo Libra Colour and love it.
It's the only ereader I've ever owned but I used the spouse's Nook and Kindle a couple of times in the past and the Kobo kills it. Granted, we're talking about a nearly new release of the Kobo vs a 5+ year old Kindle so it's not a fair comparison.
Because of eInk and auto-sleep, the battery lasts me well over a month of casual reading (~30min before bed) with the occasional multi hour weekend session. Backlight is present and is totally readable in dark areas at <10% brightness; 100% brightness is like a supernova in your face. While the Libra Colour is not specifically a note-taking tablet like a reMarkable, it does just fine for quick notes/todo lists/etc but I did splurge on the ($60) stylus. There's a "notes" application that comes pre-installed.
eBook support for writing in margins (or over text), underline/circling, highlighting, etc is really nice but occasionally the highlight is flakey when trying to highlight the end of a paragraph. That seems to have been specific to certain epubs rather than an "always" thing, but it happens in around 20% of epubs I've used.
EDIT: Notes and highlights you do in an epub (and presumably other formats) are exportable to your PC via Calibre ("Annotations"). I love this because I like to highlight things I find interesting, particularly good quotes, and this gives me an easy way extract them while retaining a reference to which book it was and where exactly in the book it was. Example attached.
Seconding a Kobo. They have Overdrive (library) integration in the US and their eink and full color options are both great.
You might try one of the larger Kobos to be able to read PDFs comfortably. The little ones might be a bit cramped with most PDFs. For html I've never tried that with Kobo, but a lot of people swear by the Android e-ink tablets from Onyx and Boox, though those are sometimes pricey!
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My kindle is from 2011, got it for free from someone getting rid of it. It's old and dumb as shit and Amazon fortunately doesn't care about it anymore.
Since I got it, it never had an Amazon DRM-ed e-book loaded on it. I intend to keep it that way.
This is why I bought some Chinese android ereader than an amazon Kindle.
So happy I just exported my collection last week and have closed forever my Amazon account the same day.
I must say, escaping Amazon is the significant action I took in my life that was completely inconsequent on my daily living.
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Are there any good "open" alternatives to the Paperwhite? I've been drooling over getting an e-ink reader for like a month straight now.
https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/kindle-models.html
Most of the current models can be jailbroken, but I'd definitely rather another route. (Not having to deal with checking second-hand market seller's firmware versions etc)
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