Alternatives to Kindle
Buying an ebook from Amazon gives the illusion of owning a book, but what you're actually purchasing is a revocable licence tied to an account and locked with DRM. Amazon can modify that licence, block access, or in extreme cases remove content you've already "bought." For a deeper look at this dynamic — well beyond ebooks — this article on the non-ownership of digital content is a good starting point.
Hardware: e-readers less restrictive than the Kindle
No e-reader on the market is completely "free," but some give you much more room to manoeuvre. Kobo (a Canadian company in the Rakuten group) natively supports ePub without the conversions Kindle requires and lets you install KOReader; it's still a closed ecosystem, with your account and library managed on Kobo's servers. PocketBook, Linux-based, goes further: beyond Adobe DRM it also supports Readium LCP, the standard used by many digital libraries (including the MLOL circuit) for borrowing, making it one of the most convenient choices for heavy library users. Tolino was born from an alliance of independent European booksellers as a collective answer to the Kindle, though since 2017 Rakuten Kobo has been its main technology partner.
For those looking for more versatile devices, Onyx Boox e-readers are Android-based tablets: you can install third-party apps, including digital library apps. Among the more talked-about newcomers are the XTEINK X3/X4 mini e-readers, pocketable devices where some models accept community-developed alternative firmware. For those pushing toward truly open hardware, PineNote by Pine64 offers open hardware running Linux/Debian — though the Community Edition is explicitly aimed at developers and not yet ready for everyday use.
Software: managing and reading without depending on Amazon
Calibre remains the definitive tool for managing your library: it catalogues ebooks, converts between formats, and syncs with any e-reader regardless of which store they came from. KOReader is an open-source reading app that's highly customisable, installable on Kobo, PocketBook, Android, Linux, and (with a bit more effort) even on Kindle. For audiobooks and podcasts, Audiobookshelf lets you run your own self-hosted server with an official Android app for offline listening (on iOS the official app is still in beta, but third-party clients exist), without going through Audible.
There's no single right answer: those who borrow heavily from libraries will find a Readium LCP-compatible device most convenient; those who want maximum control will favour a Linux/Android e-reader with KOReader installed; and those who buy ebooks should, when possible, prefer editions without DRM.
