@darryl: I wish I had read this sooner...
You are making an argument I never made, and then #WINNING against it. It's an old method..
Sprinkle a few "plethoras" in there for style - and call it case closed?
I am not arguing for brick and mortar (I am sorry folks, but 40% of commerce soon will be online only). I am halfheartedly arguing for "the other publishers", but only as a means to be able to get out of the quagmire that has already opened up.
I would also argue that Amazon will be a worse "cultural entity" in maintaining the "essence" of the book, than if you'd keep the stakes (as in "has to and also can still produce an ebook") distributed and not have people all follow their model of - "hyphenations for the masses only if they buy our premium format" and "how about we look over your shoulder, count the pages you read, and then distribute funds accordingly -- hey its the advertising model - its great.."
Also - regarding the "library" sidedebate... When was the last time you had to watch ads, or got billed there in regards to the "involvement" you showed in the book you borrowed.
Also - in a recent patent filing Amazons lawyers - "in the flavor text" stated, that they would take over the lending and used market also - simply because, for them - there is no additional expense. Again, the infrastructure already is in place. Think about that for a while.. Just keep pondering on the idea for a bit. I am sure, you'll reach the same conclusions I did.
Please understand, that I am not repeating the "Amazon is bad" arguments that are out in circulation for years, I became critical of Amazons highly controversial approach to this market - after .kfx was released - and everybody failed to report on the fact that we will probably never be able to remove its DRM (not unless Amazon releases PC software that decodes it to be able to view it) -- and everyone else was cheering it on for excluding (easy) hyphenation from all Books that don't go through their "special treatment".
It was a genuine "is this the wrong movie, or.." moment. Before it became very apparent, that people were simply reproducing the marketing lines. You know - like any good online community (I hope it stings..
).
Yes, .kfx is still a problem - as you identified correctly - and it will get worse over time (because distribution as the main file format is ongoing).
How about a little more provocative statement to end this with..
The old guard in this forum is motivated mainly by brand loyalty and the notion that they have invested countless hours in what, after a few years, amounts to "manage custom screensaver for prosumers" - because Amazon took away from them everything else.
They arent allowed to understand the device, the renderers on it, or the file format. When they tried to make sense of it anyway - Amazon slapped them in the face - so hard, that they took it to heart and never dared to do it again.
But that no one said a word - when the default file format was taken away from them, that makes it somewhat tragic. Because thats the most important cornerstone.
-
And if someone wants to fill me in, why did you - for a short time delete postings, when they mentioned .kfx?
Also, Kovid really should talk more on this issue - because the next push will be to convince people, that it is so much easier for them just to use Amazon to manage their .kfx libraries. And the kicker? It really is, because its .kfx ..
(#usingcalibreishard)
Turned out - the old guard never guarded anything in the end. But keep educating guys... Love ya'll.
(Problem with my opinion is, it is early. But its sound..
)
edit: Also in light of the recent developments on the Fire TV front - start thinking about when you don't want people to update their Kindle firmwares anymore - because after all Amazon just introduced a "blocked apps" database to their Android build (thats novel! yes! and here is what it does: Lets say you sideload an app they don't like. On each reboot disable any app thats on the list on a system level so the user not only cant use, or update it - but also cant deinstall it on the UI level, rewrite adbd - so the thing the app you dont like (a launcher btw - to be more specific - a launcher without ads, unlike the one Amazon would like you to use in the future..) does (read a logcat) can't be reintroduced - not without distributing it with an old, packaged, version of that library - and finally - inject yourself in between the command line interface and the system - so when the user tries to launch any app blocked by Amazon, the call errors out).
I am mentioning this, because from a small group of consumers, the reaction to this was "you have to update - to stay in the loop, and because of potential security issues - YOU could become part of a botnet". The same argument that was used in here, around the "responsible disclosure" event.
So please - don't get too used to slinging it around - it can come back and bite you...
Finally - a Linux consumer device with a "blocked apps" feature - we had to wait for it soo long... It currently blocks two launchers - simply, because Amazon wants you to spend more time looking at their ads.
Also on a sidenote - never even think about changing the Kindles UI. But thats nothing new to you... You learned that one a while ago! (Still, hope it stings...)
For the readers that are not keyed in - in the past Amazon changed their file obfuscation each and every time someone in here identified how their renderers (reader software) on the Kindle work and started to realize functions like custom page borders (all directions) or better hyphenation. I never understood why people in here let that slide... Or to be more precise - why it is seen as a thing in the past - and usually not talked about.
Its a culture thing..
I never understood why no one reacted - when they banned this communities (easy) hyphenation solution - and then turned around and started marketing it as a "premium" feature - for the new closed (no, no - its "exclusive") file format, they then imposed on to this community (and everybody else). It baffles me.