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Old 11-20-2017, 07:33 AM   #41
latepaul
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Let me offer a slightly different perspective.

I like the idea of an open platform. I like it as someone who can program and therefore might make use of it personally. However I have two observations:

1) It seems unlikely that Amazon will do this for all the reasons people have already given.

2) There are already ereaders based on Linux where the software stack is mostly open. By which I mean they may have proprietary software for readers etc but there are few or no barriers to loading your own programs.

Amazon's market share vastly outnumbers the vendors of the second type. So one might credibly argue that

a) the two things are connected and as there already is an "open" option the current market share (more or less) reflects the general interest in it.

b) if one wanted to promote the open option, one might be better off encouraging the existing products i.e. buying them, rather than trying to persuade Amazon - who clearly believe in their proprietary strategy - to change.

Now the response to a) might be that more people don't choose the open option because they're locked in* to the proprietary one. Which may be true but that's a DRM issue and that being the case it may make more sense to campaign against DRM. I actually think that could change in time but the inertia is such that it'll take a while - just my opinion.

(*I'm talking about the perception more than the reality. But I think there's enough 'friction' to stop people casually switching brand of ereader.)
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