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Originally Posted by marvmax
Thanks for that explanation Dennis. To me it's always interesting to see the way that technology shakes itself out.
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The standards process can be grimly amusing. Vendors involved all tend to piously proclaim "Oh, yes! We firmly support standards! Do it
our way!"
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I always try to make purchases that have the widest accessibility also. Luckily since I really like SF and fantasy I buy mostly from Baen. But eReader and Fictionwise seem to have wide selections of formats too.
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Well, eReader has versions of the reader for a wide range of devices, and Fictionwise carries titles in a wide range of ebook formats.
The other problem with lack of a standard is "Is the content I want to read available in a format my device supports?" We've had the spectacle of ebook publishers competing to make their ebook format the dominant one, when they
should be competing like paper book publishers do -- on the strength of their catalog.
And some formats are problematic, even if they
are technically supported by your device. For instance, if I have any other choice, I don't get content in PDF format. Most PDFs are not created with the options that will let them reflow to fit the screen they are displayed on, and can be painful to read on a handheld device.
I'm a big fan of the Baen offerings as well, and have the entire Free Library collection. I prefer to grab the HTML versions, and convert those for reading on my PDA, but the other options are useful.
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I often wonder why people willingly tie themselves to one proprietary format?
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Because they don't know they have alternatives, or don't see the restriction as onerous.
Folks who bought the Amazon Kindle, for example, can point to a broad range of content and superior pricing as reasons to have a Kindle. That's fine as long as the Kindle meets their needs. It will be less so if they ever wish to switch platforms.
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Dennis