Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-14 Thread strypey
I only open office documents when I know exactly where they've come from, and  
I trust the full chain of upstream sources to have reasonably secure  
practices. In other words, I don't open many office documents, and like  
Stallman, I tend to insist on being given OpenDocument formats, not Microsoft  
anti-formats. I don't open office documents from untrusted random internet  
sites at all (I'm much less suspicious of .PDF files. Is that unwise?).


So following your advice, I should not install this unmaintained package and  
open the .CHM file at all.





Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-09 Thread strypey

pengnuin wrote:
>> AOSP definitely isn't perfect, but better than the kind of stuff one can  
expect on a Amazon Fire shmablet out of the box... 


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-09 Thread strypey
True, but that refers to the *specific* exploit they tested. I'm sure you  
know better than to think that malware can never infect a GNU-Linux system.  
Getting a user to open an untrusted file from a random website, when the file  
type is one that is a *known vector for malware* on at least one OS, seems to  
me like exactly the sort of social engineering attack that could be used to  
overcome the baked-in security of GNU-Linux.


This is especially the case when opening that file requires the user to  
install a non-default piece of software like xchm, a GUI layer developed by  
one person on SourceForge (known to be a source of untrustworthy binaries),  
for a library (CHMLib) developed by one person, that hasn't been worked on  
since 2009!

https://github.com/jedwing/CHMLib

Chances are neither of these programs has been security tested with Ubuntu  
14.04, let alone with Trisquel specifically, nor the code put through a  
security audit. I might as well just put out a welcome mat outside my front  
door with my root passphrase printed on it, take a photo, and post it on  
4Chan with my current IP address.


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-08 Thread enduzzer

...one has Windows 7. I do not want to pay for Windows 8.

Free upgrade to win 10 still works. Just saying. I don't think you should use  
win but MS gives it out for free contrary to their marketing hype that the  
free upgrade days are done and over with.


https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-10-free-upgrade-is-still-alive-and-kicking-in-2018


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-08 Thread strypey
Thanks for the tip MagicBanana. So I need to install xchm from the Trisquel  
repos? You are confident I am not putting my system at risk by using that to  
open a .CHM file from a random website, even give its capacity for malware  
delivery (as shown in the link I gave)?


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-07 Thread strypey

True, but it is a known vector the delivery of malware, at least on Windows:
https://blog.checkpoint.com/2015/05/12/the-microsoft-help-file-chm-may-enslave-you/

Also, there seems to be no default program for opening .CHM files on Trisquel  
7. I decided to take the risk and open one, but the system tells me no  
program is available to open such a file.


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-04 Thread 7en
Those actually look like good devices I could live with for a price I'd be  
willing to pay!
Thanks for mentioning it, I might actually get one. AOSP definitely isn't  
perfect, but better than the kind of stuff one can expect on a Amazon Fire  
shmablet out of the box...


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-04-03 Thread jamathis
I've been thinking of getting either the Inkbook Classic 2 or Inkbook Prime.   
They run AOSP and you can install F-Droid on them to install reader programs  
that are free.  There was a recent episode of Gnu World Order about this  
reader and it seems like a decent choice over a Kindle or anything similar.


Here is the episode of Gnu World Order for anyone interested.   
http://gnuworldorder.info/audiophile/gnuWorldOrder_12x7.ogg


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-31 Thread greatgnu

>but the download options seems to consist of torrents with no seeders


There are various options, two of them work just fine without javascript,  
namely b-ok.org and bookfi.net



Example ->




Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-31 Thread strypey
It certainly has a big database, but the download options seems to consist of  
torrents with no seeders, and .chm files, which seems like a dodgy thing to  
open on a local machine from an untrusted source.


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-28 Thread greatgnu

teh largest database -> http://gen.lib.rus.ec/


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-28 Thread strypey
There's always Project Gutenberg. They have over 56,000 gratis e-books  
available for download, donations welcome:

http://www.gutenberg.org


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-27 Thread Patrick

Thanks for all the help guys.

With ebooks, I don't have to buy Canadian, I think I will look for a 
better supplier.


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-27 Thread 7en
I agree with aloniv on the point of avoiding DRM, the few books I looked at  
on their site all say that they come with Adobe DRM. Opening epub however  
shouldn't be an issue for e.g. fbreader.
The deletion of books RMS occasionally talks about refers to the Amazon  
(Sw/K)indle, which was used by Amazon to delete 1984 from readers devices. If  
you were to use a Free Software reader application, you won't run the risk of  
this happening to you - but you might run the risk of not being able to view  
the book (now or in the future) if the DRM is intrusive enough.


You might find https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks to be an  
interesting read.


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-27 Thread alonivtsan
kobo uses DRM on some/all of their ebooks, so it's best to avoid getting  
ebooks from there.


https://www.kobo.com/help/en-US/article/3501/using-adobe-digital-editions


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-26 Thread mjmhogg5

Use Calibre !

Shouldn't be a problem to open nearly any ebook !

https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Calibre

As to whether ebooks get deleted, I think that's only a problem
on dedicated ebook readers.


Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-26 Thread Patrick

On 18-03-26 03:30 PM, great...@riseup.net wrote:

Throw them a mail and ask them?


Your right, will do, sorry for the noise



Re: [Trisquel-users] ebook reader advice

2018-03-26 Thread greatgnu

Throw them a mail and ask them?