A Free Software OS for the ReMarkable E-Paper Tablet | Hacker News Reader

A Free Software OS for the ReMarkable E-Paper Tablet

hackaday.com

58 pointswalterbell24 comments

I was confused about this. There is no repo, because what the person selling the kit is selling is a tarball that is a shortcut for his (well-researched and tested, of course) instruction manual for installing an OS that is available elsewhere. The manual itself is also available free of charge. It looks to be a bit of a pain to assemble the tarball by hand, not by design, by necessity.

I have no problem with the developer / author charging any amount for the tarball and following the licenses of the software. It's absolutely his right and the comments complaining really miss the point, if you can't afford / don't like it, read the instructions, download the source and do it yourself, you have that right

I was initially hoping for an e-paper optimized OS, which is what is still missing (luckily KOReader does a lot of what you need).

If you're generally interested in Linux on e-readers you might like that the people at Mobileread have managed to install Debian and Alpine Linux [0] on various Kindle models.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZiVo1z4Eg

It seems worth mention that actually using a desktop OS UI on your ReMarkable will wear out the screen in no time flat. You need to minimize limit the number of rewrites to the same spot.

>[the OS] may be purchased for $20 (USD)

No, thanks. Way to hinder community development and tinkering.

10$ of the 20$ go to the FSF and parabola devs. The other 10$ is for the developer who made this.

I don't mind paying for good work.

The guide is also really well made. Arguably that's the real product here and it's CC-BY-SA.

20$ isn't much so affordability is not a problem. The author also mentions on his website that he is able to discuss alternative payment methods on a case-by-case basis if you don't like PayPal.

Of course it's affordable. But having a paywall at all is a huge amount of friction and will reduce your community size.

paywall seems a bit strong for something where they literally provide you with a guide on how to do the bit you'd pay for yourself.

Might as well be the opposite. :) I added full FOSS support to Linux kernel for one of the PocketBook e-book readers, including a custom driver for the e-ink display. Gave away all the reverse engineered information about the reader for free. After a year, community size is 0.

For this person, having a paywall might even work better psychologically, to get some interested people hooked.

The biggest friction as always, is actually creating something useful in userspace, writing apps, etc. That's waaay more than $20.

Hello, I'm "this person." :) Parabola-rM already has a few users. I think charging for the convenience of pre-built images, and offering support/gratis updates for some time, helps people be comfortable with playing "in the deep-end" so-to-speak. That, along with high-quality documentation and a plain, no-bullshit way of being.

That sounds amazing! Which one is it? Do you have a link?

I'd really like to experiment with all the new mobile Linux software on an e-reader. I can't guarantee anything, but the community may just grow a little :-)

Would you mind sharing some details about how you implemented the driver? I happen to have an ED097OC1 (possibly excess stock from the Kindle DX) on my hands and would like to drive it from a Linux system.

It's http://linux-sunxi.org/PocketBook_Touch_Lux_3

>20$ isn't much so affordability is not a problem.

It is, for me. I'd be willing to donate a smaller amount, though, but not an imposed fee over free software. That's my personal point of view--others, perhaps many, might think differently, sure.

If you own a ReMarkable, it's not. Especially not for something that you can do by yourself with just a bit more effort.

Hi, I'm the guy behind Parabola-rM. If the cost is a problem, you can find other people and each chip in a small amount and share the files. This is your _right_ under the free software license.

Or, you may follow the instructions at no charge and have the same product in the end. The builds I provide are merely a convenience for those who don't want to follow the guide.

What hinders community development is leeching work of others.

This doesn't seem like hindering anything. There's no legal block, there's no stopping you from RTFM and following the steps, it's not as if the author is even hiding the steps.

Paying for convenience isn't a hinderance. You just want the convenience at zero price.

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