OpenInkpot: the best alternative firmware for the BeBook / Hanlin V3ext eBook Reader

I enjoy reading books whenever I can so in October 2008 I purchased the BeBook eBook Reader, an re-branded Hanlin eReader V3ext, that was sold by Endless Ideas BV.

Although the BeBook's hardware itself was solid, the firmware that came on the device (and the subsequent updates for it) tended to be leave a lot to be desired and were a bit on the buggy side.

I knew that there were alternative firmwares available for the device from when I was researching the device prior to its purchase so it was only a matter of time before I started looking into using them. A month later I decided to flash my device with OpenInkpot, an open-source firmware for eInk-powered devices, that had just hit their 0.1 milestone.

The OpenInkpot's Social Contract which stated that the system and its components would follow the Debian Free Software Guideline was a major factor in my decision to pick it for my device's de-facto firmware and I have to say that I have been very happy with it ever since.

When OpenInkpot 0.2 was released in December I was blown away by the improvements that the developers and the various contributors had made. The new interface made things look much more polished and really did breathe new life into the device in my opinion.

I cannot wait to see what the developers of OpenInkpot have in store for us in future iterations.

For those interested, here are a few screenshots of OpenInkpot:

OpenInkpot's Optional Graphical Menu OpenInkpot's Default Non-Graphical Menu OpenInkpot's Bookshelf

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