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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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The real question is, can it run Lin...oh, never mind.
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?
No, the REAL question is... why?
A Netbook is cheaper, faster, and designed to run it. Why pay Amazon for an overpriced specialty item then make it do something it was never intended to do? I can't imagine the thing can still access the 3G network for free (the author replied "YES BUT DON'T DO THAT" to someone who asked)...
And, yes, I know... "because we can". And I congratulate the person who managed this. It's an impressive technical achievement.
Still doesn't make it something I see a lot of people wanting to do. Why would anyone really want to take a one-trick pony and change the trick...?
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
This is very highly cool. I wish I had the time and money to spend on such an endeavor. However, my question is - how does one get to the CLI and type in the inevitable commands that must be run to make things work??
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
It gives you a better base on which to start customizing the device--- e.g. once there was Linux on the XBox, people started producing software to turn them into media centers. The built-in OS on Kindle can't do much, and it's not easy to modify it to have it do more. For example, even on the Kindle's hardware it should be possible to have a better web browser than the really bad one that's built in.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Because under *nix you can use file permissions to prevent Amazon from deleting your files.
(This is partly a joke - but only partly)
Just the answer you gave is answer enough.
Keep it in context. This was a guy at an open source conference, showing off a new example of something that Linux people take pride in. If he were trying to make a business of selling Ubuntu Kindles then he might need to concern himself with the practicality of it.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
You're approaching the problem all wrong.
The innovative side of human creativity comes from asking the opposite. You should not ask Why... but rather...
WHY NOT????
The new functionality was presented in a talk at OSCON 2009. Be warned, [Jesse] has a very high geeky-hacker level. Make sure you have a tech dictionary and Google at the ready when you watch the video embedded after the break. His talk starts at about two minute in and runs for five minutes total.
is there a new rating system i don't know about? what are the other options besides "very high geek-hacker level"?
I wonder what the legal team will do? This is a derivative work and the guy did reverse engineer how things worked (a little) to get Linux on it.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
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
You can already do that. The Kindle appears to the computer as a USB mass storage device.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
I don't know why you'd particularly want to run X11 on a kindle, or certain apps. But there's definitely a space here for stuff like other eBook formats, word-processing (eInk looks great when you're outside), and improving on the general Kindle user experience. For example - the DX has PDF reading, but there's no real organization of PDFs other than by filename. What if I want to organize all my work PDFs (journal articles and whatnot) by journal, author, keyword, etc? Wouldn't it be cool if someone ported Papers to the Kindle DX?
Generally speaking, I love the Kindle hardware as a display device. The interface and user experience is pretty terrible, especially coming from a regular computer where there's always SOMETHING you can download to fix your problems.
Still doesn't make it something I see a lot of people wanting to do.
This is why I stopped reading Linux Journal. There would be some nice technical articles, but there seemed to be a lot how-to articles that only 1 or 2 people would care about. (i.e. Linux powered sump pump)
The "because you can" argument is getting old. I like the "because you can AND you can benefit from it".
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
No, the REAL question is... why?
A Netbook is cheaper, faster, and designed to run it. Why pay Amazon for an overpriced specialty item then make it do something it was never intended to do? I can't imagine the thing can still access the 3G network for free (the author replied "YES BUT DON'T DO THAT" to someone who asked)...
And, yes, I know... "because we can". And I congratulate the person who managed this. It's an impressive technical achievement.
Still doesn't make it something I see a lot of people wanting to do. Why would anyone really want to take a one-trick pony and change the trick...?
My question is... doesn't it ALREADY run linux?
You have got to be kidding! I have a netbook and an ebook reader, and they are absolutely not replacements or each other! OK, I'll spell it out for you in detail.
Things the Kindle can do that the Netbook can't:
I have a high-end PC, a netbook, an ebook reader, and a smart phone. I am very glad I have all of them. Each of these devices has capabilities or conveniences not available on the other devices. These are great times to bee a technophile; anyone who dismisses this tech is pointless has no idea what he is talking about.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Until the next time it does a full sync with Amazon to confirm purchases. I wouldn't expect it to stick around forever.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
If a Segway could somehow be incorporated then the fanboy circle would be complete.
I already synced again, to see what would happen. It didn't disappear. (I had renamed the file, not sure if that has any effect).
"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.
Presumable the person who built a linux-controlled/monitored sump pump did benefit from it. Just because you don't have an application for it doesn't mean that none exists. And if you've ever had a failed sump pump, or more incoming water than the sump could drain, you might understand the benefit of having a "smart" pump that could alert you to failures.
At the very least there's the benefit of having done something he enjoyed and produced a demonstrable product -- it's not any different than someone who likes woodworking and builds birdhouses/furniture/whatever that they don't strictly need.
I can't and don't claim to be an expert, by any means, but I think the other thing you have to keep in mind is that it's a good proof of concept. If Ubuntu can be put on it, that might mean that other, slimmer distros might be able to be put on it. What if you could take Android or WebOS, rework them to move a cursor around for item selection (rather than through touch), and run that? Either of those would obviously have no problem running on a 3G network, and you'd have the kind of light apps that the Kindle should be able to handle.
Like I said, I'm not an expert, but being able to install a new OS on the Kindle does open up some possibilities, I think.
Whatever happened to doing things because they're fun or cool? I don't understand...he does something that is, by all accounts, really neat, and people ask him "Why? What's the practical purpose?"
He did it for the "Can-I-really-do-this?" factor. Isn't that enough?
Ride the skies
I think the weeks-long battery life is excellent for convenience. By the time I'm leaving for work in the morning, it's too late to charge stuff up.
Also, it's much, much nicer to hold an eBook than a netbook. With a netbook on a train I pretty much have to have it on the table, but I could hold up an eBook -- the Sony one is lighter than a normal paperback (IIRC).
(I don't own an eBook. The only thing stopping me buying one is the public library, which happens to be next to my local station. And that I don't read books on my commute since I started cycling to work...)
In this case, the ability to have an inexpensive, hackable e-paper device would allow the development of improved usage patterns for low-refresh rate devices.
Right now there are only a few e-paper devices out there, so there's only been a few groups working on the UIs. With the community hacking at it, its very possible someone will find new, better ways to do things that make e-paper devices less specialized. All the complaints about the rather poor web-browser are largely based on a lack of creativity and effort in the UI department... if one of these guys thinks they can do better I'd love to see what they can do.
Watch the video until the end, there's a brilliantly funny presentation about the semantic web that you wont want to miss.
Gadgets get old fast in our culture, and people move on to the next thing, meaning the old gadgets drop in price severely, and poorer folks can get them then.
He's proven you can stick a full bloat linux distro on the thing, perhaps a few years from now when kindles start to get boring to richer short attention span people and they hit ebay for ten bucks, a lot will get repurposed because of this initial work in porting.
Just a thought..because I'm one of those folks who waits until the richer dudes get the prices down on this, that and the other because they've moved on. A kindle today, too much, I have other priorities, a few years from now at ultracheap? I'd take one to fool around with it and make a cheap and lightweight ebook reader and browser. Or stick a zillion recipes on it and refrigerator magnets and give it to ye aulde ladee as a gift to have in the kitchen..something
I pretty much stay at the raw, bleeding, screaming dripping edge of five to ten years ago ;) shoot..I heard they got *cameras* on cellphones now..and they play music too... who woulda thunked it....
Good question. Let me give it a tr...
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Smart dude, significant accomplishment, and not to denigrate his success but I'd love to see him using all that brainpower on something else.
However, it's an excellent demonstration of a non-paper resume. And there are still people out there making new hardware on small platforms. Wouldn't you want someone available who knew a bit about software if you were building something you might want to sell?
Geez Louise! It's hard enough keeping good people interested in this business without trivialising their efforts to show off their stuff. Think before you crap on people, please.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Several people have remarked "Because you can". Someone stated "Because you can and you can benefit from it" as a better reason.
More particularly, I would say that "showing you can" shows you that it's at all possible to replace whatever the device was running. Immediate utility isn't even required. So, if anyone thinks of a better interface or new function that -would- improve the device as a whole, they now know it's possible to do it. They don't have to stop at "I wonder ..."