Im trying to help a friend without having in depht knowledge.
She wants an e book reader (phone is suboptimal) that is not limited to a company and at best supports tumblr which needs a browser like waterfox or an app (i will try to reccomend her wafrn later on)
most foss e book readers i found are a minimalistic linux system that seem to purely support e books
It simply being an e book reader is probably fine but bonus is bonus
Edit: thanks for all the useful answers, i will talk with my friend further about it but i didnt want to bloat the comment section as every comment is very much appreciated.
Same as everyone says for an old kindle as well. Technically it has a browser that you can use to download ebooks
BUT …… different requirements. E-ink is great for readers but horrible for browsers. You really won’t be happy trying to do both.
I have a Boox, and it is basically an android. It comes with a Chrome based browser
Boox, Mebook and Bigme make e-ink phones and tablets. They work almost as our regular phones, but with an e-ink screen.
I’ve used a Kobo that has a limited browser, but if she wants to browse the Web, I’d just get an Android tablet rather than a dedicated hardware e-reader. She can run the Kobo or Amazon or whatever apps on an Android device, as well as run reader apps for PDF or whatever.
IMHO, the major reason to get a hardware e-reader is to have an eInk screen. If she’s going to be doing anything other than the most minimal of web browsing, she’s most likely not going to want an eInk screen.
Try an Android e-ink device. I’ve been using a boox note and it’s pretty great.
Edit: You might want to get et the “e-ink bro” browser on the device too, it’s more optimized for e-ink devices
Your friend would better be served by an Android-based e-book reader. Kobos are low-powered and their browser very limited, I’m not even sure tumblr would work.
My father has a Boox, it runs straight android. I put f-droid on it, taught him how to use Anna’s archive and he loves it.
Boox are solid devices. We’ve got two at home and love them for reading. Web browsing static pages/images is fine, but video kinda sucks given the refresh rate of e-ink.
My kobo (10+ years old) has an browse option. Tried it, it kinda works but it’s kinda slow. An e reader isn’t built for browsing, e-ink is perfect for reading but slow for everything else. So I use my phone for browsing and my e-reader for reading. Since wifi is practically always off and it has e-ink display, the battery lifetime is staggering. That’s how I want my e-reader to be.