I'm finally able to read Kindle books on my Linux Laptop

English Hardware
1

Like most travellers I try to keep the number of items I pack to an absolute minimum. For many years finding room to pack the books I planned to read was a major problem… one I often ended up “solving” by buying books as needed at inflated prices at the airport news stands. Then, along came the Kindle, et al… OK except it was one more device (and charger, etc.) to pack. Kindle for PC was great except that it wasn’t available for linux, and it didn’t run well on Wine, so I ended up booting into XP just to read books. Not only was that horribly inconvenient, it also tied a lot of disk space for the extra OS.

Every few months I’d check to see if a Linux version had become available, and this morning I finally saw an answer. At read.amazon.com there’s now a browser based version that runs on either Chrome or Firefox. I’ve just loaded it on Chrome… not bad at all. It stores the books “on the Cloud” (why do we need another way to say “on-line”?) but also offers the option to store materially locally, so I can read off-line too.

2

I was wondering if anyone actually used these books…

I so much prefer the real thing (Like something else that comes to mind) :smiley:

But, yes, I know it must be useful if you have to travel

3

I completely agree (on both counts) :wink:

4

I’ve used Kindle for PC in Wine with no problems, and have a few books downloaded to it, mostly free titles. I just tried the Cloud reader, and found that the only book that showed up in my library there was the one that had cost money–the free Kindle titles I had downloaded were not available to read in it.

I also don’t like the idea that Amazon can track exactly what I’m reading and when I’m reading it, down to the page.

5

Sorry to hear that. My own experience was that every book I’d ever downloaded, whether free or paid showed up right away.

6

On 01/26/2012 03:36 PM, caprus wrote:
> this morning I finally saw an answer.

i appreciate you taking the time to let us know (really!) but i don’t
understand the splash…i mean, some have been reading free books since
forever (ten plus years) from Project Gutenberg
<http://www.gutenberg.org/>…

can get those in flat text (and other format) that read well in
something as simple as kwrite (or NotePad) made skinny…can even boot
to runlevel three and read…(and save battery)

now, i’m not against chrome/firefox or amazon, but life did exist prior
to kindle and reading in firefox…

–
DD
have you TODAY checked what they say about us at
http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

7

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:52:36 +0000, DenverD wrote:

> On 01/26/2012 03:36 PM, caprus wrote:
>> this morning I finally saw an answer.
>
> i appreciate you taking the time to let us know (really!) but i don’t
> understand the splash…i mean, some have been reading free books since
> forever (ten plus years) from Project Gutenberg
> <http://www.gutenberg.org/>…
>
> can get those in flat text (and other format) that read well in
> something as simple as kwrite (or NotePad) made skinny…can even boot
> to runlevel three and read…(and save battery)
>
> now, i’m not against chrome/firefox or amazon, but life did exist prior
> to kindle and reading in firefox…

Sure, Gutenberg is good, but if you want something that’s still under
copyright, Gutenberg won’t have it.

Not everyone wants to just read books more than 70 years old. :wink:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

8

On 2012-01-26 15:46, caprus wrote:
>
> caf4926;2434238 Wrote:
>> I so much prefer the real thing (Like something else that comes to mind)
>> :smiley:
> I completely agree (on both counts) :wink:

For me it is about half the price to buy and read English language books
electronically, than in paper. Some of the books I bought in paper cost 1$
plus 9$ transport. Bytes do not have transport costs.

Using a computer to read? No way I can use the laptop while lying in bed
waiting for sleep. A reader can be hold with two fingers. Or even in bright
sunlight if I want, and the battery lasts days or weeks.

What I would like is being able to load the books without booting to Windows.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

9

On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:23:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> What I would like is being able to load the books without booting to
> Windows.

Can do that with my Nook using either Calibre or just mounting the Nook
as a USB device and copying things to the filesystem.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

10

On 2012-01-30 18:12, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:23:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>> What I would like is being able to load the books without booting to
>> Windows.
>
> Can do that with my Nook using either Calibre or just mounting the Nook
> as a USB device and copying things to the filesystem.

I can copy things to its filesystem, no problem with that. But bought books
for the Kobo are not a single .epub file, but several files (one per
chapter, I think) in .xml.gz format. There is no “download epub” link in
the shop, it just installs automatically when you sync the book.

Fortunately, the device can sync on its own via wi-fi.

I don’t know yet if I can install on it bought epub files from a different
vendor.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

11

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:23:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> I don’t know yet if I can install on it bought epub files from a
> different vendor.

It probably depends on the DRM used by the vendors - if it knows about
the DRM then it should work, but obviously if it doesn’t, then it
wouldn’t.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

12

On 2012-01-30 22:37, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:23:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>> I don’t know yet if I can install on it bought epub files from a
>> different vendor.
>
> It probably depends on the DRM used by the vendors - if it knows about
> the DRM then it should work, but obviously if it doesn’t, then it
> wouldn’t.

But I have no means of trying, except by risking money, or reading
somewhere that it works. It is one of the problems with these devices,
compatibility.

But meanwhile it serves my purpose of reading English without paying high
prices. :slight_smile:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

13

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:18:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> On 2012-01-30 22:37, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:23:06 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>
>>> I don’t know yet if I can install on it bought epub files from a
>>> different vendor.
>>
>> It probably depends on the DRM used by the vendors - if it knows about
>> the DRM then it should work, but obviously if it doesn’t, then it
>> wouldn’t.
>
> But I have no means of trying, except by risking money, or reading
> somewhere that it works. It is one of the problems with these devices,
> compatibility.

Most of the online booksellers that I’ve shopped through offer free
selections as well - B&N does, for example, but the book is still
encrypted using the DRM you’d have from a purchased book, IIRC. Their
system doesn’t differentiate.

> But meanwhile it serves my purpose of reading English without paying
> high prices. :slight_smile:

:slight_smile:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

14

On 2012-01-31 02:58, Jim Henderson wrote:

> Most of the online booksellers that I’ve shopped through offer free
> selections as well - B&N does, for example, but the book is still
> encrypted using the DRM you’d have from a purchased book, IIRC. Their
> system doesn’t differentiate.

Good idea! Actually, the first book I read was free. I will try this sometime.

But I know of two help files in my Kobo that don’t come the same way as the
rest, they are plain epub files.

>> But meanwhile it serves my purpose of reading English without paying
>> high prices. :slight_smile:
>
> :slight_smile:

You can not imagine how difficult and expensive it is to read English on a
non English language country. Or any other language, I guess. Paper books
cost about double their original price, and the selection is too short
unless you live on a big city. You have to buy what is available, not what
you actually want. Ebooks change all that - to a point. Amazon, for
example, warns that they are not allowed to sell all books on all
countries, there are restrictions. Not censorship, but rights of sale.
Internet is not that much a global market. But I know you are aware of
that, you told me :slight_smile:

Once I bought a second hand book from a shop in New York for 1$ (Man-Kzin
wars series). Shipment was about 9$. Discouraging.

So I was abroad, and had the choice of a Kobo at Chapters, or a Kindle via
internet. The Kobo won, it is simpler and I could buy it at a physical shop.

I’m happy customer. Although their email postings are excessive!

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

15

On 2012-01-31 03:48, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2012-01-31 02:58, Jim Henderson wrote:
>
>> > Most of the online booksellers that I’ve shopped through offer free
>> > selections as well - B&N does, for example, but the book is still
>> > encrypted using the DRM you’d have from a purchased book, IIRC. Their
>> > system doesn’t differentiate.
> Good idea! Actually, the first book I read was free. I will try this sometime.

Apparently, I can not read kindle ebooks. Amazon uses its own DRM format,
AZW, and my kobo can only read adobe DRM epubs and pdfs, and open epubs.

And, the kindle can not read epubs - at least, so says the wikipedia.

It is a fragmented market :frowning:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

16

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