this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Kobo was bought by Rakuten in 2012, Rakuten is the Japanese Amazon, except it failed to fully scale internationally.
While that may be true, so far at least they seem to be doing an OK job. Their ebooks are often sold sans-DRM, and in the cases they aren't every one I've gotten has used Adobe Digital Editions which are easy to strip the DRM from (and is a widely supported standard unlike Amazon's proprietary DRM scheme). Additionally their e-reader devices, while not open hardware are repairable with disassembly guides provided by them and they even sell replacement components like screens. I have not verified this claim, but they also claim to use recycled plastic for manufacturing them and recycled cardboard for their packaging (should you care about such things).
For better or worse, if you want a Kindle like experience, you're likely going to be forced into working with a large-ish corporation, but despite the average experience when doing so that doesn't mean that corporation must be an evil anti-consumer hellscape of rapaciousness and greed. So far at least, Rakuten/Kobo seem to be doing OK by their customers.
Rakuten is a big mess of data tracking and advertisment but I'm glad to hear Kobo remains a good product.
As long as Kobo supports epub, I think it's fine. They still support my H20 Aura from 2015, I'm not complaining.