Slightly off topic - Ebooks

Dan Ritter dsr-mzpnVDyJpH4k7aNtvndDlA at public.gmane.org
Fri Feb 5 22:41:18 EST 2010


On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 10:34:22PM -0500, Chris O'Connell wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I like the idea of getting an ebook reader, but am concerned about the
> proprietary format these new devices seem to use.  My concern stems mainly
> from the idea that if I buy an ebook on, say the iPad, I would not be able
> to move the book to my Linux computer, a Kindle or any other type of device.
> 
> I've done some googling on this topic, but there does not seem to be tons of
> information about this formatting question.
> 
> Does anyone have thoughts on this?

Yes. Don't buy DRM'd books. Wait for another year or so; the
market will sort itself out, and the hardware will get better
and cheaper.

For non-DRM'd books, EPUB is pretty much the way to go, but
don't fret over it: Calibre will convert almost anything to
almost anything else for you.

-dsr-





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