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

[David Holden]

I've had the exact same need for several months - 10 inch minimum for me
to read PDFs. I've thought about the cheapo option but I'm going to wait
a little longer. I think the first half of this year there will be some
good price/performance android tablet offerings coming through.

 Dave.


On 29/01/12 15:00, Dave Fisher wrote:
> 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
> 
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-- 
Dr David Holden. (dh at iucr.org)