In regards to the tablet, I’m thinking about buying an Amazon Fire HD 8 though I’m open to any and all recommendations.
As for the distro, I’m fine with Ubuntu or Linux Mint (or for that matter anything that you may recommend).
For the ebook reading software, I’m leaning towards using Foliate since it supports kindle, epub, and pdf formats, not to mention that the UI is great and intuitive.
Amazon is definitely not any better if morality is your concern.
For tablets, maybe one of the offerings from Pine64. Not sure how user friendly they are though.
I know and if I had electrical engineering skills, I would have loved to build my own tablet but I don’t have those skills. The next best thing is to buy something that is relatively cheap and put a linux distro on it.
You can’t do that. Installing custom ROMs on Android devices is very different than installing an OS on a desktop/laptop. Most devices don’t allow changing the OS at all, most of the ones that do don’t have any Linux builds, and then you’ll be stuck with whatever distro you’re given (probably UBPorts or maybe PostmarketOS) rather than choosing your own.
I was thinking of using this guide to install LineageOS on Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet: https://frontpagelinux.com/tutorials/how-to-install-lineage-os-on-amazon-fire-hd-8-tablet/
Kindles are really hard to root. Use XDA Developers forum for this kind of thing. https://xdaforums.com/t/fire-hd-8-2018-only-unbrick-downgrade-unlock-root.3894256/, which is what that guide is based on, looks like it only works for the 2018 version and seems way more difficult and risky than most ROM installations. Also, that won’t install Linux, just a different Android version.
I’m not saying build your own, I’m saying that if you want to avoid Google for morality reasons, buying a Kindle is, at best, a lateral move.
Like a Pi based tablet?
I looked them up and they are a bit too expensive for me.