Standard eBooks is looking for supporters

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DNSB

ADE 2.0.1 is 10 years old yet you still hold it up as the gold standard for rendering ePubs.

Are you still using Internet Explorer to browse websites? Windows 8 on your computer?

I mean, he tells everyone who's not using Windows 10/11 to upgrade (regardless of the age of their hardware)

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by MSWallack

I was very interested in trying to work on some books for Standard eBooks but turned away because the tools are (were?) only available for Linux. That seems (seemed?) to be a somewhat strange and arbitrary limitation especially given that Linux has a smaller market share and userbase than Windows (and I'm not interested in a discussion of whether Windows or Linux is better; that isn't the point).

Linux is free to install on Oracle Virtual box, which is free, and recommended by MS on Win10 and Win11 to run Win7 or WinXP Applications. (You need to install entire OS!) and may already be included in some versions of Win10, maybe not Home edition, but a free download.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Linux is free to install on Oracle Virtual box, which is free, and recommended by MS on Win10 and Win11 to run Win7 or WinXP Applications. (You need to install entire OS!) and may already be included in some versions of Win10, maybe not Home edition, but a free download.

You don't even need Virtual Box, you can just use WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) which is already built into Windows 10/11. They even have a selection of distros for it in the Windows store.

[Quoth]

I used to use the older MS version of that when it was more UNIX flavoured. It seems to have poor compatibility compared to a real version. A complete distro of your choice in a VM is better. Dual boot better still, but awkward. I used dual boot from 1998 till January 2017.

[Aleron Ives]

Thanks for the tip about Global Grey.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Are you still using Internet Explorer to browse websites? Windows 8 on your computer?

Heavens, no! Windows 7 all the way!

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by MSWallack

I was very interested in trying to work on some books for Standard eBooks but turned away because the tools are (were?) only available for Linux. That seems (seemed?) to be a somewhat strange and arbitrary limitation especially given that Linux has a smaller market share and userbase than Windows (and I'm not interested in a discussion of whether Windows or Linux is better; that isn't the point).

I only volunteered on one or two books, and admittedly I am using Linux, but which tools, exactly? The toolset se is installed via python, so it should be platform agnostic. The only other commands I see in the step-by-step instructions are git (also available on all platforms), and perl (more POSIX than Linux, really--you'd get it on a Mac, too). Perl SHOULD be available on Windows, but if that's the only blocker, surely someone could substitute a Python or a Powershell command in there for Windows compatibility.

---

One thing that does strike me about their donate is that it seems to be geared towards sustaining-contributors (to borrow a phrase from the NPR playbook). I don't necessarily want to donate $120/yr, but they have proved useful in the past six months where I almost bought an ebook for $1 or $2, only to realize it's probably in the public domain now, and sure enough, Standard Ebooks had it, so I grabbed it from there instead. I wouldn't mind giving them the $1-$2 instead, since I'd feel better knowing that people who can't afford it are still able to make use of the books. So maybe having a Donate button on each book page with a <$5 amount prefilled (or even a "pay what you want" button) might get them some more donations.

I'll raise it to their mailing list.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I used to use the older MS version of that when it was more UNIX flavoured. It seems to have poor compatibility compared to a real version. A complete distro of your choice in a VM is better. Dual boot better still, but awkward. I used dual boot from 1998 till January 2017.

Actually, WSL2 is "real" Linux. I still prefer a dedicated Linux machine for my daily duties, but if all you need is a Linux shell with the standard commands/interpreters, one could do a heck of a lot worse than WSL2.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You do know about Gutenberg and depending your local copyright rules, Fadedpage?

There are also different country specific Gutenberg sites.

Yes, I’ve been using Guttenberg since the very early 1990s, but do not know about Fadedpage, I’ll check it out — thanks.

[EDIT: Canadian Copyright law — I’ll have to drive 45 minutes North every time I want to read — the question is whether I have to re-download the book every time I cross the border… ]

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I used to use the older MS version of that when it was more UNIX flavoured. It seems to have poor compatibility compared to a real version. A complete distro of your choice in a VM is better. Dual boot better still, but awkward. I used dual boot from 1998 till January 2017.

As DiapDealer pointed out WSL2 is "real" Linux. It runs in a hypervisor but it has the nice benefit of already being integrated with your system so you don't have to fiddle with shared folders and the like.

The old Windows Services for Unix and the like were more for MS to check a box for government contracts than being something actually functional. WSL is something they actually want people to use so it actually works.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Thanks for the tip about Global Grey.


Heavens, no! Windows 7 all the way!

Are you sure it isn't XP?
Apache

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Apache

Are you sure it isn't XP?
Apache

Windows has gone downhill since the NT days when Microsoft allowed drivers into the kernel space.

Just one old fogie's opinion.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Actually, WSL2 is "real" Linux. I still prefer a dedicated Linux machine for my daily duties, but if all you need is a Linux shell with the standard commands/interpreters, one could do a heck of a lot worse than WSL2.

It's a nearly real Linux and better than the bought in SFU on NT4.0, 2000 and XP because that had no X server. A choice of your own distro and desktop in Oracle Virtual Box is still better and native on bare metal is best.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

The old Windows Services for Unix and the like were more for MS to check a box for government contracts than being something actually functional. WSL is something they actually want people to use so it actually works.

WSFU actually worked and was useful if you added a 3rd party X Server that could be used by the Explorer desktop. I agree WSL is better. But now we have PCs with enough RAM for a full VM install; and shared folders, drag & drop clipboard, USB etc all seems trivial to set up (XP, Win7 and Win10 on VB on Linux and XP on Win10).

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's a nearly real Linux and better than the bought in SFU on NT4.0, 2000 and XP because that had no X server. A choice of your own distro and desktop in Oracle Virtual Box is still better and native on bare metal is best.

You have the choice of your own distro with WSL. And no, it's not "nearly" real Linux. It's real Linux. Not sure why you want to fight everyone on this. Sure there's no graphic DE, but that's not the determining factor of whether or not a Linux system is real.

[MSWallack]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Linux is free to install on Oracle Virtual box, which is free, and recommended by MS on Win10 and Win11 to run Win7 or WinXP Applications. (You need to install entire OS!) and may already be included in some versions of Win10, maybe not Home edition, but a free download.

I want to help; I don't want to go through the steps necessary to install, run, and learn a separate operating system to do so. There are enough other things that I can spend my time on. Standard eBooks has decided that their tools won't run natively on Windows. Fine. That's their decision. And it's my decision not to install and run Linux just to help with this project.

My point, I suppose, is that perhaps there would be a larger pool of people to work on books if the toolset would run on Windows without installing an OS shell (whether or not supported by Microsoft).