Quote:
Originally Posted by eerok
An open standard like EPub invites development of ancillary software, and indeed we see examples such as Sigil (multi-platform EPub editor) and EPub Zip (a utility for rebuilding EPub archives).
An open standard also makes it easier for apps like Calibre to perform high-quality conversions.
An open standard also mitigates the ability of a corporate entity to control in its self-interest the access and use of data you have created yourself or legitimately purchased. In my 30+ years as a computer geek, I've seen lots of proprietary file format games, and in my old age I simply decline to play along. Smart people would follow my example. In the wars to come (I don't want to alarm anyone, but they are already here), open standards and open source are the way to go.
When you accept a proprietary format, you accept power over you. So it's not all about which store you like.
|
Goodie for programmers. That sounds wonderful.
And yet it is not important to 99% of people looking to buy an ereader. People who are buying readers to read on probably care less about the programming, they care about the availability of books.
EPub is not the dominant format. There are as many, if not more, ebooks available in Mobi as there are in EPub. There are more stores selling EPubs but that does not mean that there are more ebooks in EPub.
The number of books available in each format is more important to me then the programmability. I can read all of my books purchased from Amazon very easily. People who use the Kindle Apps can read their Amazon e-books very easily. People who buy ebooks from Amazon, strip the DRM, and convert them to EPub can read the books easily. In the end, that is all most ereaders care about.