Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
I'm one of the don't-want-single-format people; while I'd like all ebook readers to read all formats (erm, or many popular formats; I don't feel slighted that my Sony doesn't read Tealbooks or TeBR formats), I don't believe one format is every going to be perfect for every type of ebook.
I certainly don't want to eliminate the .txt file as an ebook format, even though it's very limited; I don't want readers to lose the ability to read .txt even if all commercial ebooks switch to ePub. And while I agree that .pdf has severe limitations, there are also things it can do that nothing else covers, and I don't want to lose those.
I'd like it if all commercial novels were available in ePub, and Mobi while we're still doing the format wars. But I don't want other formats to vanish.
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Agree
Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
i do think though that all readers should be able to read the same format(s), and all books should be available in the format(s) supported. none of this "mobipocket or pdf only" nonsense for novels (still often the case, including of a book i just bought recently) when mobipocket is supported only on a subset of devices, requiring conversion for other devices, simply because while i have personally no problem converting to a different format, i think there are many people who find it intimidating, and this creates an unnecessary hurdle for them.
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Agree
Quote:
Originally Posted by djgreedo
There is definitely benefit to having different formats, and I definitely agree with whoever said that .txt is a useful format.
Barring any technological barriers, there shouldn't be any reason for all good ereaders to not be able to open any standardised file format (except when DRM is involved).
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Therein lies the rub. I agree that a few major formats should continue to exist (and new ones come to fruition) for reasons of aesthetics, and all good reading devices should be able to display these formats, but the damnable curse of DRM creates an expensive (due to licensing) barrier to that goal.
DRM is the devil's handmaiden.