[Wylug-discuss] advice on ebook reader or similar...

[Dave Fisher]

I'm picking up this thread again, because my needs have evolved and
are now very close to Jim Jackson's original concerns, i.e. I now
want/need to read larger page-sized ebooks that only come in PDF
format and don't really convert very well to epub or mobi.

I don't think I've ever used a hand-held gadget more often than I use
my Kindle, but it doesn't really cut the mustard for technical books
where you need to read a paragraph, glance at a sidebar/footnote and
see an illustration or code sample in the same view.

The larger-sized Kindle DX is not for sale in the UK and I really
cannot justify the cost of an iPad or high-spec Android fondleslab ...
so I've been considering the possibilities of rooting or completely
gutting a budget android slab (max GBP 180, preferably nearer GBP
100).

I'm not really bothered about ultra-responsive, capacitive, touch,
since I'm not planning to use it as a general-purpose computing UI,
and if I changed my mind I'd probably want to hook it up to a keyboard
anyway.

Nor do I envisage using many/any apps from the Android market.

I've seen some documentation on how to root one or two of the cheapo
android slabs, but I'm wondering if anyone on this list has come
across instances of people running true Linux distros on them?

All I've seen is comments to the effect that getting/configuring the
drivers for esoteric telecoms chippery is probably hard/fiddly.

Since tablets in the category I'm thinking of are wifi only, I'm
guessing at least some of them must use mainstream and well-supported
chips.

So, anyone seen a mainstream Linux distro installed on a budget fondleslab?

Dave