Replacing Kindle for PC in Linux

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No, Jon, that's just ONE application, that needs to be crippled to even work with Calibre. The Solution is any Kindle with FW 3.4.3 or later, oldest a Kindle Keyboard 3rd Gen (B006, B008 or B00A), not the slightly later DXG (model B009). Go Content and Devices and "Download to PC for USB Transfer". As long as the Kindle is registered you can copy serial number from Devices page and paste into the suitable Calibre plugin. Once registered the Kindle NEVER needs to have WiFi, or even work at all. It needs to not be blacklisted and work long enough to register via Wifi or Mobile (depending on model) once. A S/H needs to be deregistered and not blacklisted by previous owner.

People have had plenty of trouble with K4PC.

I used Windows for nearly 25 years. I only used k4PC for a short while on XP. I use all the same software (except they are later version) that I used on XP and Windows 7 (till 2016) that I use now on Linux. Last version of Office on Windows was Office XP. Switched to LO Writer on XP. I did buy Office Basic 2003 and 2007 (old stock) and registered them with MS (on WINE on Linux) out of curiosity and only used Office 2007 long enough to install classic menu instead of nasty Ribbon.

I appreciate many have to use Windows and some prefer it. But Win10 & 11 are so incompatible with older Windows some programs work on WINE and NOT on Win10 or 11 64 bit. MS offers XP or Win7 on the same VM software as comes with Linux.

I agree that having a Kindle (that handles KF8) registered to your Amazon account is the best solution. But it could be that @BalooRJ does not have a Kindle. In this case, Windows does work better then Linux for KindleforPC.

I've not had an issue with software that I was using no longer working when I've upgraded to a new version of Windows except for Windows ME. That was a disaster. But going from Windows 7 to Windows 11, no problem. I've run Windows 7, 8, 10, & 11. Windows gets an undeserved rap and the suggestion I've read a lot on MR to move to Linux is not a solution.

My suggestion is that if you do want to try Linux, setup a dual-boot setup so you can still run Windows (without a VM). But don't dump Windows even if you mostly use Linux. There are a lot of things you cannot do, cannot do well, or is a PIA to do under Linux that just works under Windows.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

My understanding is that, even with Windows, you have to jump through hoops to keep version 1.17 working.

At least it works. The hoops are not as big as you make it out to be. If you get your 1.17 forcibly updated by Amazon, install 1.17 again over whatever version was installed. Then download and run the BAT file in the KidleforPC/MAC thread and problem solved. It's what I did when I was running 1.17. Now I have my PW3 registered to my account so I don't need to run KindleforPC.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Unchecking 'automatically update without asking' is about it.

Even with that checked, eventually, Amazon is going to force an update on you So keep the 1.17 installer and find the BAT file in the KindleforPC/MAC thread. Then when you are forcibly updated, you can install 1.17 on top of whatever version it was updated to and then run the BAT file and you are good to go.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There are a lot of things you cannot do, cannot do well, or is a PIA to do under Linux that just works under Windows.

What you are confusing, is thinking that Windows is better than Linux because you have a program - that was written for Windows - that has more issues when installed on Linux.

That's like saying Chevys are better then Fords because Fords face more issues when you install a Chevy transmission in them.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

At least it works. The hoops are not as big as you make it out to be. If you get your 1.17 forcibly updated by Amazon, install 1.17 again over whatever version was installed. Then download and run the BAT file in the KidleforPC/MAC thread and problem solved. It's what I did when I was running 1.17. Now I have my PW3 registered to my account so I don't need to run KindleforPC.

I understand that — I tried it just to see if K4PC 1.17.1 would still work under Windows 10 and it does (as you say, just reinstall it if it automatically updates). I don't plan on running it as I have no need to do so. Basically Windows has a partition on my computer because it came with it but I only go there for tests like this and to update Windows about every month or two. I'm always amazed on how long it takes to update Windows compared to how efficiently Linux does its updates.

I'm not a big fan of Wine either, but I installed it (it's now gone) to see if I could get K4PC working under Wine to help out the OP of this thread — I couldn't, so that pretty much closes the book on Wine for me. I've been using Amazon's "download for USB" option for a while now (at least a couples years, probably longer). Hopefully this will continue to be an option for several years yet. Meanwhile I buy very few books from Amazon — basically if I can find the book somewhere else, that's where I buy it. The new DeASCM plugin for Calibre is very helpful DRM ePubs. So, as it stands now, everything I need to do when borrowing or buying books can be done via Linux.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

...There are a lot of things you cannot do, cannot do well, or is a PIA to do under Linux that just works under Windows.

If someone asks me about Linux I ask them two questions. "Are you married to M$ Office?" and "Do you play a lot of PC games?" If the answer is "yes," to either question I tell them they'll probably be happier sticking with Windows. If they answer "no" to both, I help them look into Linux. As you say, dual-booting is probably a good start. But if they take the time to learn Linux they'll find that it's much more efficient OS on hardware (especially older hardware) than is Windows. I've been using Linux exclusively for about 17 years now. When I have to support my wife's Windows computers I find it frustrating, especially when her updates fail — and now she is getting nagged to upgrade to Windows 11, which she doesn't want to do. Not a fan.

[haertig]

For my entire post-college adult life, everyone has always come to me to fix their computer problems. Doesn't matter if the OS is Unix, Linux, Windows or MacOS. The last versions of Windows I had installed on any of my computers was Windows 2000 and Windows NT. Which were mainstream back when I switched to Linux full time (no dual booting) on my computers.

These days, if someone asks for my computer help, and they are not family, the first thing I ask is if their computer runs Windows. If it does, then I tell them that I no longer have much knowledge about Windows and can't help them. I have more knowledge than the average Windows user regarding Windows, even though I don't use that OS, but I don't make that fact known outside of my family.

While I have no use for Windows myself, I am not knocking the OS for others. Most people who are not software programmers or sysadmins or some kind of computer professional associate "computer" with "Windows". Because that's the way their computer came from the store and they don't know anything different. I find it best not to try to convert anyone from Windows to a different OS, even if they would greatly benefit from the switch. It just doesn't work 99% of the time. They almost always end up saying "this doesn't work exactly like Windows", and then they fail. Trust me, it's best just to say "yep", and let them go back to the only thing they know.

Luckily, Windows does indeed work for most people. Yes, you have to deal with viruses and malware and updates and rebooting frequently and driver issues and having to throw a ridiculous amount of hardware at it to keep it running above a snails pace. But most people think that's the way things are supposed to be. No need to tell them any different, they wouldn't believe you anyway.

Sometimes you run into a program written only for Windows. Often times written by a programmer that knows nothing but Windows themselves. K4PC that we are talking about here is a perfect example. It was never intended or designed to run on Linux. Yet, it has been doing exactly that for many years. However, it appears that Amazon has recently done something different on their end to cause problems for the older versions of K4PC (my guess would be intentionally). I highly doubt that older versions of K4PC can no longer run on Linux. More likely, nobody cares enough to try and figure out what Amazon did and correct for it. I certainly don't.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by haertig

... I find it best not to try to convert anyone from Windows to a different OS, even if they would greatly benefit from the switch. It just doesn't work 99% of the time. They almost always end up saying "this doesn't work exactly like Windows", and then they fail. Trust me, it's best just to say "yep", and let them go back to the only thing they know.

I used Linux off and on for six or seven years before I finally moved to it completely, somewhere around 2006 or 2007. What you describe is what I kept doing, trying to get Linux to work like Windows. When they announced (the first time) that XP was going to be phased out for Vista, that's when I decided I was finally going to learn Linux ,as Linux, instead of trying to make it Windows 2. It took me about two two or three weeks to understand the file system. I haven't looked back since. Now the file system (especially the Registry) in Windows seems weird. Unfortunately I can't get completely out of the Windows world because my wife uses it. She always tries to avoid updates for as long as she can because so many times her computer has crashed when it updated. (Not nearly as much since she upgraded to new computers about two years ago, but her laptop still "blue screens" once or twice a month. And her Bluetooth mouse likes to drop out about once every month. But this is minor compared to her old laptop. Now there's also the Windows 11 nags.

[salamanderjuice]

Kindle for PC 1.17/1.16 does work under Wine on modern distros. I have it running on Ubuntu 22.04. If you use PlayOnLinux to install K4PC 1.17 it will grab a version of Wine that works with it (3.something). Wine tricks will install 1.16 and it works. You do run into an internet certificate issue because it's using some old cert that Ubuntu and most distros removed but it's possible to add it back from older versions of Ubuntu and there is threads around showing how to do it. Other distros might require different steps though.

Newer versions of Wine often breaks apps that worked in older versions.

[John F]

Originally Posted by haertig

For my entire post-college adult life, everyone has always come to me to fix their computer problems. ...

I can't believe I missed this. Could you please post your address (or PM me) so I can bring over my PC the next time I have problems.

Thanks, Much appreciated.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by haertig

What you are confusing, is thinking that Windows is better than Linux because you have a program - that was written for Windows - that has more issues when installed on Linux.

That's like saying Chevys are better then Fords because Fords face more issues when you install a Chevy transmission in them.

I'm not confusing anything. A number of people want to run some Windows programs under Linux. Just run them under Windows.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I used Linux off and on for six or seven years before I finally moved to it completely, somewhere around 2006 or 2007. What you describe is what I kept doing, trying to get Linux to work like Windows. When they announced (the first time) that XP was going to be phased out for Vista, that's when I decided I was finally going to learn Linux ,as Linux, instead of trying to make it Windows 2. It took me about two two or three weeks to understand the file system. I haven't looked back since. Now the file system (especially the Registry) in Windows seems weird. Unfortunately I can't get completely out of the Windows world because my wife uses it. She always tries to avoid updates for as long as she can because so many times her computer has crashed when it updated. (Not nearly as much since she upgraded to new computers about two years ago, but her laptop still "blue screens" once or twice a month. And her Bluetooth mouse likes to drop out about once every month. But this is minor compared to her old laptop. Now there's also the Windows 11 nags.

I've read quite a bit of Linux upgrades breaking things. That's nothing unusual. Windows updates break things so much less then Linux. Windows updates don't normally break things.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Kindle for PC 1.17/1.16 does work under Wine on modern distros. I have it running on Ubuntu 22.04. If you use PlayOnLinux to install K4PC 1.17 it will grab a version of Wine that works with it (3.something). Wine tricks will install 1.16 and it works. You do run into an internet certificate issue because it's using some old cert that Ubuntu and most distros removed but it's possible to add it back from older versions of Ubuntu and there is threads around showing how to do it. Other distros might require different steps though.

Newer versions of Wine often breaks apps that worked in older versions.

Exactly what I was saying in the previous posts. Updates sometimes break thinks hence new Wine versions.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've read quite a bit of Linux upgrades breaking things. That's nothing unusual. Windows updates break things so much less then Linux. Windows updates don't normally break things.

No, my 25 years of Linux and 30 years of windows suggests it's the other way round by a huge margin.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No, my 25 years of Linux and 30 years of windows suggests it's the other way round by a huge margin.

I've been using Windows since Windows 3.1. And I suggest overall it's not as you say for Windows. Windows ME was the update that did break things. But I never installed it because of that.