I tried the vnc over the raspberry from the kindle and it wasn't really satisfying for what it worth. The e-ink display size and refresh rate is ok for shell action, but not so interesting for the X window...
I'd love to have a 24" or 30" USB-driven eInk screen or three for fairly static stuff like documentation. Running a terminal on an eInk display is probably less painful than repeatedly bashing your toes into a cinder block. Probably.
An iPhone would probably make a far better portable screen.
Depends on what you want to do, and if you can override the clear-screen page blanking. As a benchmark, here's someone running a Playstation 1 emulator on an e-ink Nook:
My first thought was the same - if it performs like the "page flip" on the Kindle, I'd jump off a high building within minutes. But I've no idea if most of that delay is down to the screen or some combination of processing power and/or conserving power.
The full-page flashing refresh on the Kindle is a software measure to get rid of the afterimage that would otherwise remain on the screen. Here's what it looks like when it's disabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQJGfU8fEUg
yeah it's actually not bad, the refresh is only on the character itself so it's workable. If you have a hacked kindle you can test with a terminal emulator, it give you a good idea of how fast the typing be.
In my experience tinkering around at home with my kindle a year or two ago, the eink display is fast enough that using Vim on it feels about the same as a noticeably slow but still usable ssh session. With a real keyboard attached, it is something that I could see myself using.
I was hoping for a lower level hack, but it _is_ neat.
That said, I still have a couple of broken laptops here and want to check out if I can connect the lcd displays to my Raspberry Pi in the future. When I don't fail at basic googling skills to get past all the inverse projects (replacing a broken screen instead of reusing a working screen from a laptop).
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150434
How to use your Kindle DX as a display:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/259582/how_to_use_a_kindle_dx...