I tried to write an Android app once, and I did not find it simple. I vaguely remember needing a Mac or Windows, downloading an IDE, learning Java, and then vaguely searching for things like "what do I need to make a pop-up in Android" and having no idea what functionality was available or how to call it. I gave up after 2 days.

This is what I think of as simple:

  $ result="$(
      dialog --radiolist "Pick a card" 0 0 0 \
        "Six of hearts" 1 "on" \
        "Nine of clubs" 2 "off" \
        "Ace of spades" 3 "off" \
    )"
  $ 
  $ if [ "$result" = "3" ] ; then
        dialog --msgbox "I love Motörhead too!" 0 0
    fi
  $

You don't need Java code, frameworks, permission-accepting, IDEs, packaging, shuffling files to and fro, web servers, etc etc. All of that shit that people today just accept as the best we can come up with. All that unnecessary complexity, for what? So we can gatekeep computing for the geniuses? So we can justify having to spend hundreds of dollars on a new mini-supercomputer every year, just to display a calendar? I'd really rather not.

Give me the equivalent of a 486DX2 with 16MB of RAM, a simple TTY, and a program that renders dialog boxes directly to video memory, and I can do everything I'll ever need to [with a small e-ink screen]. Save the fancy stuff for tablets and laptops.

1. Nowhere near as simple as what they’re describing.

2. Requires network connectivity.

Right and also there's a full linux under there with numerous processes running, waiting for touch and other i/o events, updating the display and RAM. Not great if you want weeks long battery.

I would like to imagine an e-ink operating system like what Kindle has: a hardware off by default mode, unless a physical button press is given. It wakes instantly, does its job, as complicated as needed, and then goes right back to hard off until the next wake.

That would be super cool if it just showed up as a PTY device, plugged in to the USB.

Yes it’s more complex, but it does also accomplish what they’re asking with something like the Boox ereaders.

Network connectivity isn’t required, you can do this in adb.

Battery: sure, running android means you’re not getting the life you would see on a Kindle, but it’s significantly better than a traditional tablet.

Kobo and most PocketBook reader are embedded Linux AFAIK.