Forcing a Change

I have a Barnes & Noble Nook. The old one with the funky corner that has the hole in it. I was never sure what to do with that hole. (OK. Get your mind out of the gutter.) Was I supposed to put something through it to act as a lanyard or wrist strap?

Not sure.

And now B&N wants me to upgrade to a new device and they are trying to force into it.

Because of profitability problems with the Nook line (or something) B&N turned the Nook line over to Samsung for production and maintenance. So all the old Nooks have to go.

And ever since they spun the line off my old faithful e-reader has been less and less faithful.

It's been slower to start up. It's been slower to respond to swipes, taps, whatever. And this morning when I hooked it up to my laptop to transfer some files, the laptop did not even recognize it.

I'm at a bit of a loss here. But not really, I hope.

Microsoft tried the same thing with Windows 10. I had Windows 7 (I think). All I can remember is that I ate up a ton of data with updates and anti-virus protection. I would actually take it to work to do the updates and anti-virus so that I would not kill my data plan. On weekends I went to the public library to do the updates.

Then a friend of mine switched it over to LINUX (Mint edition). My data usage has dropped immensely. My anti-virus updates isn't. (I will admit that I have not figured out Clam-TK yet. Then again, he tells me that there are very few viruses that affect Linux. Still, I am going to figure it out.)

So, I'm wondering what to do with the tablet that the capitalist corporation wants me to upgrade from. Actually I am past the upgrade date where I can get any credit from them. Still – it's frustrating that it doesn't work the way it used to. So reliably and better than an Amazon Kindle.

So I am looking into open source software that I can have put on the Nook and re-purpose it like I did to my laptop. I paid to have the work on the laptop done – If anything went wrong, my friend knew how to fix it.

And open source has many similar programs that work just as well as the corporate programs. I just need to kick the programmers a few bucks. Most of the programs are free. They just ask donations.

So, anyone know of open source coding for tablets?

I bought it to be an e-reader for my Marxist literature more than anything else.

That and to read cheesy comic books and graphic novels.

A tree knight as a super hero?

Who was smoking what when they wrote that?

Then again, it's called science fiction and fantasy for a reason.

Update:  I succumbed to capitalism and got the new Nook (by Samsung).  It's a data hog with all the updates that it needs.  I killed 1.5 Meg of data on my data plan working on it yesterday.

So I'm at my public library updating it, the blog,  and trying to figure it out.

It's also a battery hog,  as Samsung products seem to be.  I think they are in cahoots with the energy companies.

Hopefully I figure this thing out.

And all for $199 I received a tablet, free anti-glare screen, and protective cover.
And to think that they are still making a profit on the sale.

Grumble.

Update April 2 2016

So the tablet updated the OS while I was reading my email yesterday and killed my data plan.
1 Meg (almost) for the update.  Lolipop. Who names these things?

So here I am looking  for hot spots so that I don't kill off what little data I have .
Grumble.

And on a Sunday the only choices are local restaurants with bad coffee.
i'm down in the south towns visiting and not a lot around.

Blah.