ebooks.com books on linux?

[Mikolaj Machowski]

Hello,

I'd like to buy some books from ebooks.com.

They are offering:

- MS Pocket Reader. Probably DRM-ed .lit is it possible to read it on
Linux?
- Mobireader. This one also DRM-ed so no use for me.
- Adobe. They are promoting thing called Adobe Digital Editions. Is it
just PDF or something more?

Any other e-book sellers with sane expectations?

TIA

m.

[Flarflenarf]

Mikolaj,

Short of directing you to the in-the-public-domain Project Gutenberg, the
only publisher that always sells its ebooks without DRM is Baen Books. They
sell sell science-fiction and their Webscriptions storefront offers
non-DRM'd Mobipocket, MS Reader (.lit), HTML and RTF versions of all their
books. You should also check out Fictionwise.com. They have both non-DRM'd
and DRM'd ebooks for sale. The non-DRM'd ones are usually listed as
Multiformat.

Derek

[brecklundin]

Don't forget http://www.feedbooks.com they are some improved/corrected/
reformatted versions of many of the books found on Project Gutenberg.
Also over at http://mobileread.com/forums there is a forum with a
zillion corrected and reformated public domain and public commonc
titles that several member have spent tedious hours correcting.

Also for a short while Tor has several free books. I believe I saw a
thread around here somewhere about them. Not all of the books are
winners but still ya never know what another person may enjoy.

You can find some details about device portability of DRM'd or "mobi
dedrm" books over at:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=73

People are looking and some have found legal ways to make it happen.
Much depends on the honesty of each person. I for one feel authors
NEED our support so they can do what they do best and that is write
more books.

.lit format has been very portable for a long while now.

[Ron Hale-Evans]

For unlocking Microsoft Reader books, there's always clit (ConvertLit):

http://www.convertlit.com/

I use this to read MS Reader books on my OLPC XO.

--
Ron Hale-Evans ... rw...@ludism.org ... http://ron.ludism.org/ ... (206) 201-1768
Mind Performance Hacks book: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindperfhks/
Center for Ludic Synergy: http://www.ludism.org/
(revilous life proving aye the death of ronaldses when winpower wine has
bucked the kick on poor won man)

[AlanW]

If past performance is any guide, don't ever buy Adobe e-books. If
you look at the support forums and FAQs for ebook stores it is very
clear that there are many more problems with Adobe ebooks than with
other formats.

The DRM on both LIT and MobiPocket can be cracked, and FBReader will
read DRM-free LIT (exploded to OEB, then made into a zip file
renamed .oebzip) and MOBI (but some DRM-free MOBI files must be
uncompressed first).

An alternative for Linux on x86 processors is to use wine to run
either MS Reader (LIT) or eReader (buy its ebooks from
fictionwise.com) and leave the DRM intact. I have never used either
one, but apparently eReader software is easier to get working using
wine than MS Reader. Unfortunately, Windows MobiPocket Reader does
not run under wine. The DRM on eReader ebooks can also be cracked, by
the way.

Alan.

[Mikolaj Machowski]

Dnia Friday 04 of April 2008, AlanW napisał:
> If past performance is any guide, don't ever buy Adobe e-books. If
> you look at the support forums and FAQs for ebook stores it is very
> clear that there are many more problems with Adobe ebooks than with
> other formats.

Thanks.

> An alternative for Linux on x86 processors is to use wine to run
> either MS Reader (LIT) or eReader (buy its ebooks from
> fictionwise.com) and leave the DRM intact. I have never used either
> one, but apparently eReader software is easier to get working using
> wine than MS Reader. Unfortunately, Windows MobiPocket Reader does
> not run under wine. The DRM on eReader ebooks can also be cracked, by
> the way.

MS Reader doesn't work on latest wine, ditto for MobiPocket Reader 6.1.
BUT version 4.9 works. And here I have dilemna: ebooks.com points to
download of 4.9 version while fictionwise prefers 6.1.

I think I will risk and buy MobiPocket format.

m.

ps. I have all house of classics in dead-tree format and want to read
something new from time to time :)

[sking]

Mikolaj Machowski wrote:

> - MS Pocket Reader. Probably DRM-ed .lit is it possible to read it on
> Linux?

Get a copy of "ConvertLIT". It converts *.lit to other formats, and
can do something with the DRM if you have the license key. (I'm not
clear if that "something" is removing the DRM altogether, or simply
converting it to an older standard that is compatible with more
devices.)

http://www.convertlit.com/

> Any other e-book sellers with sane expectations?

Baen Books is my all-time favorite. They're traditional paper
publisher of science fiction books, but via their "Webscription"
service they also sell all their titles in ebook format without any
kind of DRM or encryption at all. They supply a variety of formats,
including HTML. Ebook prices tend to be on par with paperback
prices. They also have a huge library of titles you can download for
free.

http://baen.com/
http://www.webscription.net/

[Mikolaj Machowski]

Dnia Friday 04 of April 2008, sking napisał:
> http://baen.com/
> http://www.webscription.net/

Yeah, I know it but don't especially like their "stable" of authors.
Bujold and Cook are only I really like, Belizarius books are fun, maybe
a bit of Drake and Flint apart from that but that is almost all. "March"
series by Ringo was quite good but final "We Few" is crap.

m.