251
Amazon thanks loyal Kindle devotees by bricking their kit
(www.theregister.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
251 points (100.0% liked)
Enshittification
768 readers
22 users here now
Welcome to Enshittification
A community for everyone who misspelt it as enshitification.
"I the onceler felt sad as I watched them all go, but business is business and business must grow, regardless of crummies in tummies you know."
This is your space to document the decay, demise, and destruction of the tech world as we know it. Share stories, articles, and firsthand experiences that capture the ongoing decline of once-celebrated platforms, services, and companies in the late stage capitalist landscape.
From monopolistic corporate shifts to anti-user updates and the relentless pursuit of profit over quality—if it’s broken, bloated, or just plain bad, it belongs here. We’re here to spotlight the moves that make the tech world worse, one piece of enshittification at a time.
For some more positive takes
!disenshittify@lemmy.cafe
!deshittification@thebrainbin.org
Guidelines
🔹 Stay on Topic: Only post content about the decline of tech products, platforms, or companies.
🔹 Quality Content: Give some context when posting links or articles to drive quality discussions.
🔹 Respectful Discussion: Critique companies, crappy tech, and capital, not community members.
🔹 Positive Monday: The first Monday of every month is reserved for positive content only that shows enshittification isn't inevitable.
Join us to expose the changes that ruin the things we once loved and to discuss what comes next in a tech world gone wrong.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Same. I enjoyed my kindle devices but I have in time been taught the lesson - do not participate in closed ecosystems.
If you don't control it, then you don't own it.
This is why I use, love, and advocate for Kobo. They're not super cheap like Kindles usually are, but they're pretty durable. I have the libre 2 and my cats knocked it off my end table onto a concrete floor dozens of times and it still works perfectly. Only issue is the unlock button is a bit pushed in, because I press it unreasonably hard.
I've gone with 3rd party eReaders that can use the app for either, but my main concern is that a lot of authors seem to be locked in to Kindle and not actually providing books for other platforms, in particular authors under Kindle Unlimited.
Kobo does the exact same shit tbh.
They need to do a budget model, because that fucker is going on the beach. It’s going to the bottom of my suitcase. It’s going in my tactical satchel next to my keys.
When it comes to open tech, I really think we need to change our way of thinking.
We have a habit or comparing the price of alternatives against the market leader (in this case Kindle) and assessing value on that basis, while at the same time forgetting that Amazon claws back a huge amount of profit after the point of sale on books - specifically because of their closed ecosystem. The monopoly allows them to subsidise the device.
If we are buying open devices which aren't locked down, the companies selling those devices have to actually make all their profit up-front on the device itself, and so it's naturally going to feel comparatively more expensive.
We have to remind ourselves, if we value freedom we need to be prepared to pay a premium for it.
This is sadly not globally universal though. Part of the reason I've usually gotten Kindles in Germany in the past is that while their readers are only marginally cheaper than their biggest competitor here (Tolino), they sell virtually all books in english not just german, and it's cheaper.
If I were into reading in german, sure, library card, etc etc. But that's not what I do, that's not my use case (and I understand that obviously no one is going to optimize for my use case as it's fairly specific). And once I want to buy in english, my options are basically Amazon or overpay-like-crazy at which point their slightly cheaper reaper + 30%-50% cheaper books combine to make it irrelevant whether the reader goes kaputt faster than a Tolino or might lose internet access in 14+ years, I save enough money that I can easily pay for 2+ extra readers in that time.
Those are all valid points, and in your scenario I am sure that's a good choice for you :)
You may have interpreted I was making the argument that in the long-term, being open is a smarter decision financially - but I didn't mean to imply that. As you point out, it's often quite the opposite.
My dislike for closed systems isn't because I was bitten in the ass financially by them; it's because I was bitten in the ass ideologically.
Open may sometimes cost more, but I am fortunately able and willing to pay it for the privilege of knowing that what is mine is mine, forever and always, with no terms attached.
Kobo has a similar problem. I have a Kobo mini I can no longer use.
Try the Calibre software to access the kobo. Keep it off the internet.
But that means you might as well use a Kindle again and save a lot of money. That was kinda the original problem, after all.
Whoops, I have a kobo. I meant to say kindle. I've only ever used the calibre software to access my ereader. Calibre is better than either of their interfaces.