When I tried (and returned) one of their monitors, it was absolutely horrific with ghosting. This was perhaps 5 years ago.

There was no manual, and it had a closed source application to time or force refresh. Of course, being closed source it wouldn't work on a Pi (arm64), nor did I feel comfortable about unknown code, or it working in a few years on a newer version of Linux.

It was all exceptionally poorly done. Amazon says it was a Dasung E-Ink Paperlike 3 HD Front-Light and Touch 13.3" Monitor.

If the app had been OSS, or it had an open API via the cable, I could have scripted an auto-refresh upon scrolling in vi or some such. Or just hacked into something seeing change scope under X. Point is, I could have made it work for me.

The default modes were terrible.

I hope things are better, but no way will I install some weird closed source client.

I have a fairly new tablet, and it handles refresh incredibly well, but I'm sure that's with strong integration into the display stack. Which is fine, of course, but that doesn't help me with coding.

EDIT: one of the things which makes some of these e-ink tablets incredible for refresh, is partial, very well done sectional refresh. So if a small part of the screen changes, BAM!, it's refreshed instantly for ghosting.

Again, I suspect this is tied into the display stack. The monitors I've seen don't seem anywhere as good. I'd love to to be wrong on newer models.

Input is just HDMI, so works on Linux without issue. There might be an app or something that lets you control the settings, but I've never used that once. All relevant stuff can be configured from the front panel buttons. I think the Mac issue is that macos slightly dithers/moves the image with a high rate which would kill the EInk pixels quickly. There appears to be an app to deactivate this behavior though.

I cannot make guarantees but I do remember temporarily using it for my Debian installation for my home server -- can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work though. For both Windows and Mac it's just plug and play.

Page does mention Linux but there’s a separate Mac variant (which also needs an app) and a warning never to plug a Mac on the standard variant. What about people who use both?

the 60hz version says it doesn't

> Only Support Mac, Windows > Linux is not supported

Weird. I have a work MacBook Pro m3 and a personal m1 MacBook Pro. Both are just plug and play for me. I actually have my displayed connected to a CalDigit TS3 dock and just connect different computer to the same dock.

What problems did you run into?

Yes, it's basically a large Kindle.

For reading and work, I actually prefer this experience. The contrast for text is way better and more crisp than regular LED/LCD/OLED displays, unless you turn the regular display's brightness way up, until which point my eyes hurt from all that light emitted. This was my primary reason for buying such a display -- I love my Kindle and want to use it more, but I couldn't.

Now for entertainment you are obviously limited. For informational Youtube videos you could be getting by alright -- you don't really need to see colors for those. Games is tricky since you could only do non-demanding ones. Shopping gets tricky since you can't see colors. Sometimes I find myself hopping on my iPhone to check before placing orders.

I have both, a Boox Mira pro (monochrome only) as well as a Dasung Color EInk Monitor.

You actually get used to the monochrome thing. I've adjusted my syntax highlighting to use more italic, underline, bold etc so you get by without the semantic coloring.

The color eink is way better though. Only downside is that it has less contrast than the purely monochrome one. Color makes up for it nicely, though. Plus the refresh rate on the Dasung is way higher, so you can actually use a mouse without going insane trying to predict cursor movement.

Where the monochrome monitor was more of a secondary display primarily used for coding, I'm now using the Color EInk one as my main display.