I don't want to ruin good news, but everyone needs to know that Kobo is owned by the shitty Japanese Amazon equivalent called Rakuten since 2012. So the risk of enshitification is pretty high, why not if the hardware is nice, but try to cut as many software ties as possible.
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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have the Kobo Libra Colour
This is my first time hearing about Kobo. Do you like it?
I bought my brother Kobo precisely because of being privacy and consumer friendly.
Android is still a bad match for e-reader usecase and hardware but whatever.
I dunno, it's not perfect, but I tend to enjoy the experience of moonreader, librera, or other really solid apps on android better than the experience on kindles, or the others I've tried that aren't android based.
That's even on eink options; I have a boox, and a kobo that are eink, with the boox running Android, and kobo whatever they used. I tend to find less hassles on the boox, despite it being their cheapest model.
I don't think any of them have really perfected the overall form and function, but I find the apps on android give better immersion and less hassle.
The apps, yes, while the system sucks (battery).
I dunno, I had a kobo many years ago, put an android launcher on there and could use it as an e-ink tablet. Don't know if you can still do this, but it was pretty handy.
I do that too, except that Android e-inks are usually underpowered for anything except a reading software. Which would be fine with a minimal Linux, less so with a weird Java VM and a 100 subsystems.
I'm not saying there's anything untoward here, but at what point do we start looking at these partnerships and start to wonder if it affects the repairability ratings?
HMD partnered with iFixit and created a very repairable phone... Except in the software realm, where the bootloader is locked, it's still on Android 15, and allegedly the next major update will be its last (giving it a shorter security shelf life than a glued-up Samsung).
You can buy some parts for the steamdeck but not the mainboard despite them claiming you could buy every part when they announced the partnership. iFixit has been getting just a littttttle bit sus honestly
kobo + calibre + annas archive = nothing else needed
I’ve also installed koreader on mine, and I’ve been quite pleased with it.
Remember to donate to the author if you enjoy a book
I try to only stick to dead authors to avoid guilt.
Library card
True. Libby and Hoopla are also nice apps on a Kobo eReader.
Can you get Hoopla? It could be that mine is a bit too lightweight to run it, but so far I've only had Overdrive access through direct OS integration.
Do kind of wish that they had less silly names, though.
It's hard to recommend them without sounding like you're just babbling nonsense.
If you get Libby and Hoopla for your Kobo, you don't need Ploob, no matter how much Ploob has it for you.
coming up with a new name for something that isn't already trademarked can be frustrating, let alone a list of names to choose from for an executive board or committee. i totally get how people eventually end up at "yea, this name sounds dumb af, but it's unique and not already taken"
Donating to calibre and annas if you've got a few extra bucks to spare.
Yeah, time, I got all the books I need and none of the time of yesteryears
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I had a kobo reader once, and when I had questions about repairing it they refused to help in any shape or form. They told me to buy a new one, and I did - but never again a kobo. Maybe this is a step in the right direction, maybe it's too little, too late.
I guess for you, I haven't bought one yet loool
Kobo + Calibre is all I need.
How would you say Calibre is better than just putting the epubs straight on the ereader?
Calibre just provides a little management on top. I use it for doing things like cleaning up metadata (making sure all books in a series have the same series name, for example), and transferring books over wifi (calibre can spin up a mini web server that I can access on the kobo).
I could get by without it, but it's nice sometimes.
that makes sense, I might try it sometime soon.
A lot of the books I acquire 100% legally have messed up cover metadata
It also does some niceties around fonts when you do a conversion. Some ebook readers dont come with specific fonts so they just use the inbuilt one(s).
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Because calibre also allows me to convert other formats into epub.
Some files are unreadable garbage because of bad OCR or bad formatting or whatever. I use calibre to preview files in its built-in viewer, to see how they would be rendered on my actual reader. Helps a ton.
Some files have messed up metadata. Calibre helps with fixing that. I have encountered files that would appear as documents on my Kindle rather than books, for example. Easy fix with calibre.
Even if it is not messed up per se, I still sometimes use calibre to sometimes edit metadata to tidy them up. So that the author information between different books of the same series is the same, for example. "Banks, Iain M." for all the Culture books, rather than a wild mess of various different variations of the same name. I have also added missing pieces of information to help group books in my library etc.
It's a super useful tool. I just wish it didn't spam so many system notifications though.
If you don't have a Kobo, the file conversion is also a lifesaver.
I have one of the old Kindle e-readers, and it doesn't support epub, for example. It does support pdf, in theory, but the age of the hardware means any decently large/complicated pdf bogs it down something fierce.
Being able to use calibre to convert my books to a format it does support is nice.
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Just FYI, older Kobos are exceptionally easy to repair and modify. They used to have an SD card as the hd you could remove and do all sorts of cool things with. They also published the version of the linux kernel they used and any modifications they (Kobo) devs had to do to get things working. It was awesome for a time. Its more locked down now... :(
I used to play around with https://quill-os.org/ and it worked decently well on kobo until the newer versions started to crack down on the mod scene.
Nowadays im thinking the open book or Diptyx E-Reader might be a better bet for long term sustainability. Its great ifixit is working with kobo, but the software is still locked down.
For a bigger list take a look: https://itsfoss.com/open-source-ebook-readers-options/
I'd love to have ventured into that with mine. Turns out the very first gen I got didn't have the SD card internally yet but soldered memory, so I can't do some fancy stuff with it. On the other hand, the thing still runs and that's like, most of what matters. The old thing still got firmware updates from time to time, gotta say that is rather impressive. I can also swap the battery once it decides to die, which is nice.
Bummed to hear they cracked down on the mod scene there, thought that was awesome. I'm bookmarking your comment so I know what to look for if my kobo ever dies. Not getting any locked down bs for sure.
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Big fan of my Kobo as well. I wish the software was swappable, if just so I could try other stuff out, but Koreader is alright when I don't want the default setup.
Sweet, this makes me immediately want to go buy a kobo! I love ifixit.
Kobo is pretty good. I like mine. Is it as nice and user friendly as Kindle? Probably not. Do I own it, not rent it, am not served ads, and don't have to deal with shitty DRM? Yes. Zero regrets. Got one for my sister and my wife, too. They also really like them.
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