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Ubuntu 9.04 On Kindle 2
JO_DIE_THE_STAR_F*** writes "Jesse Vincent managed to get Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope running on the Kindle 2. The new functionality was presented in a talk at OSCON 2009."
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I can't help but wonder - is the kindle's data connection still available?
And if so, on what end is the code that limits the kindle to accessing wikipedia and amazon?
It should be; the data connection (sprint) doesn't use an account-name system. It's based on hardware. The hardware hasn't changed, so one can assume connectivity will work.
The Kindle isn't limited to accessing Wikipedia and Amazon even with the default OS-- there's a web browser under the "experimental" features in the default menu. Amazon doesn't play it up much partly because it's not very good, and partly because presumably they'd lose money if people bought Kindles just for web browsing.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I recently bought a Kindle book (was cheaper than used copies), and discovered that it appeared to have been scanned, and poorly at that. There were OCR artifacts, and the font was crappy. I read up on the situation, and found that Amazon offers refunds for 7 days after a Kindle book purchase. I called, complained, and was refunded the price for my purchase. (Not sure if the 7 days is accurate, read that online, but it worked for me).
I had backed up my Kindle files, and I was curious what would happen when I 'synced' the Kindle with its wireless connection. Sure enough, the book I was refunded for disappeared. Also out of curiosity, I restored the backed-up file of the book to the Kindle, and it was still readable.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Finally, someone who gets it.
I'm a grad student, and I can't begin to tell you how many PDF files my professors have distributed to classes as reading material. Hundreds of pages, probably thousands. Sometimes I find torrents of books I'm supposed to read for class; other times, the Kindle version is cheaper than any available used copy (and I get it instantaneously, no waiting a week for shipping).
I'd like a netbook too, mainly for taking notes, but they're different devices with different purposes.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
What I did was to get a Jaunty _chroot_ running on the Kindle 2. The interesting bits were mostly around making X work and beating the 5-pad into submission.
It has a keypad. Check the picture.
Someone on the project page asked the guy who did this if the data connection worked. His reply was rather cryptic: "YES BUT DON'T DO THAT". If the person who managed it is recommending against it, the very same hoopy frood with the smarts who managed to go to all the trouble to hack Ubuntu onto the Kindle, then I gotta go with "it either doesn't work well enough to bother, or there's a really good reason why you shouldn't use it if it does".
Amazon only guarantees that the Kindle can be used to access a few websites (Wikipedia, Amazon, maybe one or two more), but they currently allow you to access all of the internet for free over Sprint's cellular network. Amazon pays for it.
If people were to start tethering their Kindles and using them as a means of getting free internet anywhere, it would become too expensive for Amazon to continue. This is probably why the author said not to use the data connection; he doesn't want Amazon to discontinue the free internet service.