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this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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I've looked into this in the past and settled on Kobo. You can disable the telemetry and never use the the Rakuten account part and have a very good ereader... And you can install the open source KOReader software.
https://github.com/koreader/koreader
MobileRead forums and wiki are a good resource for ebook stuff.
For example, a breakdown of the hidden configs on Kobo devices https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Configuration_Options
+1 on this. Kobos actually use Linux under the hood. And although the default UI is proprietary, it's super easy to install KOReader.
You don't even need to hack into it some custom firmware, just a sideloader, which normally doesn't break even if you actually updated the base firmware.
Here the official tutorial on how to do it: https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/Installation-on-Kobo-devices
AFAIK every single ebook reader on the market actually runs Linux under the hood!
in parts of europe you can get some kobos branded as "tolino" - they have the same hardware, but actually run on android
My kobo is great. You never have to connect it to the internet if you don't want to. I transfer epub files to it via USB.
Same here. I only buy drm-free from ebooksdotcom, and transfer them with ~~caliber~~ calibre. My kobo wifi isn't even configured.
*Calibre. (link for those that don't know it: https://calibre-ebook.com/)
and (for anyone reading this later) if you are all about keeping things up to date, you can sideload firmware
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Firmware_Releases#Firmware_Download_Link
(at your own risk)
Kobo readers are really neat, I've been using them for over a decade and I don't remember ever using a Rakuten account or even going online with them for anything but software updates or connecting to my local library system (which Kindle can't do). I use Calibre on the desktop to manage, convert and load my reader and that's it.