It's not a general purpose device - which is OK with me - no need to be distracted by games or web browsing.

If you don't care about linux or privacy, the kindle is way cheaper, and most any tablet with apps has more general utility.

I mainly wanted an ebook reader with a big e-ink screen.

What I found was more than I expected -- you can scribble or highlight your PDF files. The paper/writing part is pretty fun. Write in the margins. I've found myself drawing/sketching for no reason.

Another motivation was openness. You are not forced to use their cloud service or run an app.

In fact, they provide the root password and you can ssh into it. Out-of-the-box you are into-the-box.

It's linux-based, and people have written modifications for it.

Thinking about it, in the past decade or two, I haven't ever written much more than my signature. Maybe in the future writing will only be done for pleasure, like listening to vinyl.

I've deliberately modified my handwriting a few times in my life, like many people. In my teens it was an expression of character. Later in life, I did a master's degree that required many written exams over several years, and I found i was getting hand pain and cramping from writing so much for so long, over 2 hours for example. After some Googling, I turned to itallic writing (I'm right handed), where all strokes are of the form //////. It made a huge difference and I stuck with it.