Jailbroken (and maybe used) older generation eInk kindle?

Better yet, pick up a Kobo. You drop a zip file on the SD card and get a full Linux environment.

I picked up a few of them for $10 each (used)

Care to tell more about what you did with yours and where to start if you‘d want to install a Linux environment? Sounds like a great idea since these precious e-ink screens shouldn’t end up on a landfill yet!

do you have any links on how to do it/what models should we look to get for doing this?

https://thingpulse.com/product/4-2%e2%80%b3-espaper-plus-kit... ?

Maybe not that big (It's 5" instead of 10") but I just bough an M5Paper for a similar use at home, probably in "collaboration" with my Home Assistant. Still haven't tested it but I've heard good things about it.

https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5paper-esp32-development-...

You can start developing easily using their easy development tool called UIFlow, that's block based like Scratch ( https://flow.m5stack.com/ ), or go "advanced" and use MicroPython or Arduino, as it's core is an ESP32

Check out LILYGO T5 4.7 Inch E-paper based on ESP32 for $33: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002006058892.html

Or you can repurpose an old Kindle: https://github.com/matopeto/kindle-weather-dashboard

I actually just got one of those devkits, it was only slightly more expensive to get this than just the eink display. and there is ready to go weather display software already available.