Where to buy - non-Amazon?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by shalym

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to install ADE in order to make the plugins work on infested epubs? Is there now a version of ADE that runs natively in Linux?

Shari

I've never said I don't or won't use Amazon.
All my epub books I've bought are bought DRM free, either from an indie Publisher or Smashwords.
I do buy Kindle ebooks from Amazon, not many, but some. Conversion of them is no problem with my Kindle serial number in the Calibre plug in.

Nor will I waste disk space and reliability on dual booting Win10 & Linux. Win7 was the last MS sensible to dual boot. I do have OpenBox for virtual machines, but have no need for Win10.

I just gave away an x86 Win 10 tablet/laptop, it was only used for PDFs and my new Android 10" tablet does that better.

I do have some desktop machines and laptops left in the attic with Windows and my son has a Win10 desktop as a game console. He uses a Linux laptop for actual content.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've never said I don't or won't use Amazon.
All my epub books I've bought are bought DRM free, either from an indie Publisher or Smashwords.
I do buy Kindle ebooks from Amazon, not many, but some. Conversion of them is no problem with my Kindle serial number in the Calibre plug in.

Nor will I waste disk space and reliability on dual booting Win10 & Linux. Win7 was the last MS sensible to dual boot. I do have OpenBox for virtual machines, but have no need for Win10.

I just gave away an x86 Win 10 tablet/laptop, it was only used for PDFs and my new Android 10" tablet does that better.

I do have some desktop machines and laptops left in the attic with Windows and my son has a Win10 desktop as a game console. He uses a Linux laptop for actual content.

There's nothing wrong with Windows 10. In fact, it works much better then Linux for eBooks. I see nothing wrong with dual-booting. By doing so, you can use Windows and Linux. Windows for everything eBook and Linux for when you want to pull your hair out.

As for DRM free ePub, you can also get them from Baen, Tor, and Star Trek ePub from Simon & Shuster.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Post #24 brought amazon ebooks into play.

Ah...I missed that. I guess in the eyes of Quoth, Amazon is less evil than Adobe. (I agree with that, actually)

Shari

[zakman]

Thank you all. Have been trying out the different sellers and have settled on Kobo for the moment. Appreciate the advice!

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by shalym

I guess in the eyes of Quoth, Amazon is less evil than Adobe.

No, less bother with the DRM with Amazon, I doubt any DRMed ePub isn't on Kindle too. Amazon is a near monopolist.
Adobe has different issues.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

better then Linux for eBooks. I see nothing wrong with dual-booting.

I find eReaders far better than any desktop for eBooks.
Dual booting is so last century. VMs to run Windows simultaneously on Linux, or vice versa. Easy to copy the VM files to replacement computer, or revert if an update / virus / application breaks. VM snapshots, unlike Windows restore points, always work.
I was installing, training, selling Windows stuff for fifteen years. Using it for nearly thirty years. I'm so glad I don't support computer users now. I have no difficulties at all with Linux since wiping the dual boot of Windows 7 from this laptop. Not lost a single hair.
I'm happy for people to use Windows 10 as long as I don't have to sort it out.

[John F]

Originally Posted by shalym

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to install ADE in order to make the plugins work on infested epubs? Is there now a version of ADE that runs natively in Linux?

Shari

I'm going to guess that you don't need ADE installed for the plugins to work? You need ADE, or Sony (or maybe Android with the an app that lets you open ACSM files) to download the EPub, but the plugins don't need ADE.

I may be wrong.

[Quoth]

I've no idea, as I've never in over 10 years of eBooks, ever bought an ePub with DRM. All the ePubs I bought were DRM free. You don't need any application installed for the Kindle specific plug-in, just the serial number of the physical eink Kindle you bought the Amazon book for. Mobi or AZW files, not KFX, which work differently. Hence use Download to PC, not PC app on Amazon.

AFAIK, only with B&N do you need their Nook. You don't need any app for Amazon Kindle files downloaded for a real Kindle.

I mostly read on a Kobo, but I've no idea how Kobo files work. Even when I did use Windows XP and then Windows 7 and briefly Windows 10, I never used the Sony / Amazon / Kobo apps to transfer files. I did look at the Kindle app on Windows and removed it as spyware. Also I removed the Andriod Kindle app and and instead used various 3rd party epub apps. I only looked at the Sony program on windows to see how it read back annotations, it's ghastly. So I read annotations from Kobo in Calibre using the Kobo Utilities. Originally in Windows, now only on Linux.
I have a Nook Simple Touch to see how epubs look on it. Never installed any Nook applications, nor ever bought B&N books.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've no idea, as I've never in over 10 years of eBooks, ever bought an ePub with DRM. All the ePubs I bought were DRM free. You don't need any application installed for the Kindle specific plug-in, just the serial number of the physical eink Kindle you bought the Amazon book for. Mobi or AZW files, not KFX, which work differently. Hence use Download to PC, not PC app on Amazon.

AFAIK, only with B&N do you need their Nook. You don't need any app for Amazon Kindle files downloaded for a real Kindle.

I mostly read on a Kobo, but I've no idea how Kobo files work. Even when I did use Windows XP and then Windows 7 and briefly Windows 10, I never used the Sony / Amazon / Kobo apps to transfer files. I did look at the Kindle app on Windows and removed it as spyware. Also I removed the Andriod Kindle app and and instead used various 3rd party epub apps. I only looked at the Sony program on windows to see how it read back annotations, it's ghastly. So I read annotations from Kobo in Calibre using the Kobo Utilities. Originally in Windows, now only on Linux.
I have a Nook Simple Touch to see how epubs look on it. Never installed any Nook applications, nor ever bought B&N books.

B&N changed how they do things and what app now works. Most people cannot remove the DRM from a nook book. A nook book is a B&N ePub with or without DRM. Yes you can easily download an ePub from B&NM if it has no DRM using the Windows 10 app from the Microsoft Store. So it's not worth it to buy from B&N unless you buy ePub without DRM and have Windows 10. You cannot copy ePub downloaded from your nook ST because it's partitioned and you cannot see the partition for downloads. The nook line is a disaster as the firmware on all models is awful

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

B&N changed how they do things and what app now works. Most people cannot remove the DRM from a nook book.

I'm pretty sure B&N just changed the location of a file inside the ePub. That was how I was able to strip DRM from the last B&N book I bought.

I think mostly the problem with B&N is the plug-in authors just aren't interested in solving it, since B&N is such a small slice now.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

I'm going to guess that you don't need ADE installed for the plugins to work? You need ADE, or Sony (or maybe Android with the an app that lets you open ACSM files) to download the EPub, but the plugins don't need ADE.

I may be wrong.

The plugins need ADE to work. They don't work just automagically by themselves. The same way they need something to work with in the case of Kindle books (either Kindle for PC or the serial number of a physical Kindle).

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think mostly the problem with B&N is the plug-in authors just aren't interested in solving it, since B&N is such a small slice now.

I think that once e-books became mainstream developers mostly lost interest. The DeDRM plugin is on life support these days. I have my doubts that it will make the transition to Python 3 that is planned for Calibre later this year.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I think that once e-books became mainstream developers mostly lost interest. The DeDRM plugin is on life support these days. I have my doubts that it will make the transition to Python 3 that is planned for Calibre later this year.

There is a Python3 branch for the DeDRM tools.

The same as the current Python2 branch, the standalone DeDRM tools are gone and won't be coming back.

If I read some comments correctly, part of the reason for dropping the standalone DeDRM removal tools for Windows and Mac were due to issues where most would-be users showed an total inability to read and follow instructions in the various ReadMe files.

My limited testing using the calibre 4.99.x betas showed that, for the most part, it seemed to work but there were some odd error messages.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The plugins need ADE to work. They don't work just automagically by themselves. The same way they need something to work with in the case of Kindle books (either Kindle for PC or the serial number of a physical Kindle).

I thought the plugins needed ADE for the key file; if you have the key file, you don't need ADE? I may be wrong, as I used to use the tools without Calibre, and you could provide the key file manually (I used to use the Sony software).

My memory is foggy, so don't quote me on this.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

I thought the plugins needed ADE for the key file; if you have the key file, you don't need ADE? I may be wrong, as I used to use the tools without Calibre, and you could provide the key file manually (I used to use the Sony software).

My memory is foggy, so don't quote me on this.

Yes, that's right. But you have to get the key from somewhere. I've never used the Sony software, so no idea if you can get the key from that.