Rudolf, Do you know any free-software-friendly e-book reader that can compete with kindle?
Kindle is really tempting and I'm still looking for a open alternative platform that can DRM-freely read books and install apps like "Cool Reader". On 30 December 2011 23:06, Rudolf <[email protected]> wrote: > So someone wrote a short blog post about how the Kindle has changed the > way they read: > http://dbasch.posterous.com/amazon-has-drastically-changed-the-way-i-read > > Kindle advantages (according to the post): > > - pipeline of unread books to read through > - multiple Kindle apps, can continue reading on any device > - buying books based on Kindle store availability > - so cheap it's treated as an appliance > > The only app so far that can act as a replacement is Cool Reader 3: > http://coolreader.org/e-index.htm > > All ebook apps have a pipeline of unread books. > > It is is available on Android, Windows and GNU/Linux (Ubuntu package but > the source is licensed under the GNU GPL, so not a problem to create new > packages). That covers the second point only partially. Of course it keeps > track of the last page you read, but it doesn't do this for multiple > devices. For example, I'm using Dropbox (yes it's evil and yes I'm looking > to switch away from it!) and it would be nice if the metadata used by Cool > Reader were stored in the same directory as my ebooks. Then I could truly > continue reading on any device. As it is, I have to remember the last page > I was on. > > I think the third point is helped by when authors and publishers make it > clear on their websites that an epub version can be bought. O'Reilly does > this I think and so do a few other publishers. It would be nice if we > started a letter writing campaign or something to promote that. While some > book publishers are still wary of selling ebooks, the ones that already > sell ebooks could make it more clear that they're selling DRM-free ebooks. > > The appliance argument can be fought against in two ways; recommend > devices that are super cheap but are as free/open as possible (the > cheapest/libre-est Android phone or tablet could work, even an HP Touchpad > would work since WebOS is now free), and put out more "propaganda" that > promotes the perspective of any computing device as a general computing > device rather than an appliance. > > Thoughts? > Rudolf O. >
