Does anyone still use Glassbook Reader?

[CyberRArchiver]

Hello!

I am looking for lost eBooks from the early 2000s for the practice of preservation and especially those in obscure formats (some most of you have probably never heard of before). That includes Glassbook Reader which was common in that era on eBook readers and PCs alike!



The appearance of it overall somewhat resembles Microsoft Greetings Workshop 2.0 which was popular in the late 90s to design greeting cards.

It is likely that almost all eBooks made for it disappeared forever or otherwise got republished under a different format or something like that.



So yeah! It was later purchased by Adobe to become Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader and died later in 2004 when it was replaced by Adobe Reader 6.0 (possibly, I don't know that much about it as information about it was extremely scarce even after I did further digging). There used to be a Plus version as well (Link - https://web.archive.org/web/20001209...162X&storeid=0).

As of today, There is almost very little information about Glassbook Reader except the posts I made on my subreddit.

I am really interested in whether some people still use this application. I got a copy of it's later Adobe Acrobatform in an old CD I found a year ago, it doesn't work on my computer but I bundled it with Microsoft Reader into a zip file in which you can get by clicking the link below (it was taken down by the IA for some reason but it's back again):

https://archive.org/details/geronimo...oftware_202508

Thanks!

[Quoth]

Interesting. Never seen that.

Are you SURE about the connection to Adobe Acrobat, which I remember from release.

1: PDF

The Portable Document Format (PDF) was created by Adobe Systems, introduced at the Windows and OS/2 Conference in January 1993 and remained a proprietary format until it was released as an open standard in 2008. Since then, it has been under the control of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committee of industry experts.

Development of PDF began in 1991 when Adobe's co-founder John Warnock wrote a paper for a project then code-named Camelot, in which he proposed the creation of a simplified version of Adobe's PostScript format called Interchange PostScript (IPS).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_PDF

Corresponds with my memory.

2. Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Adobe Acrobat was launched in 1993 and had to compete with other products and proprietary formats that aimed to create digital documents

It was on DOS and Mac before it was on Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Acrobat

There was an Adobe ebook Reader. It's nothing to do with Adobe Acrobat or PDFs. Some people including Wikipedia misname it Acrobat eBook reader.
I have a working copy somewhere. It also doesn't seem to work with either epub2 or OEBPS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_eBook (which is sort of epub 1). It wasn't developed into Adobe Digital Edition Reader, but ADE replaced it.

Okular supports "Fiction Book" which might be what Adobe ebook Reader uses.

I'll look up what I have.

Originally Posted by CyberRArchiver

The appearance of it overall somewhat resembles Microsoft Greetings Workshop 2.0 which was popular in the late 90s to design greeting cards. [/URL].

I was using MS products for PC from 1981 and selling them from 1992 till 2005. Never heard of it.

I also had a multimedia creation business from about 1992 to 1996.

[CyberRArchiver]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Interesting. Never seen that.

Are you SURE about the connection to Adobe Acrobat, which I remember from release.

1: PDF

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_PDF

Corresponds with my memory.

2. Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

It was on DOS and Mac before it was on Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Acrobat

There was an Adobe ebook Reader. It's nothing to do with Adobe Acrobat or PDFs. Some people including Wikipedia misname it Acrobat eBook reader.
I have a working copy somewhere. It also doesn't seem to work with either epub2 or OEBPS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_eBook (which is sort of epub 1). It wasn't developed into Adobe Digital Edition Reader, but ADE replaced it.

Okular supports "Fiction Book" which might be what Adobe ebook Reader uses.

I'll look up what I have.


I was using MS products for PC from 1981 and selling them from 1992 till 2005. Never heard of it.

I also had a multimedia creation business from about 1992 to 1996.

Actually, Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader (Glassbook Reader)
only works for it's own extension called EBX (I don't even know what it stands for). Do you think you have EBX files on your computer, I would like to see those.

[slm]

from https://www.webopedia.com/definition...opedia%20Staff



Short for Electronic Book Exchange, a DRM standard for protecting copyright in electronic books and for distributing electronic books among publishers, distributors, retailers, libraries, and consumers. The standard was proposed by the Open EBook Forum, adopted by Glassbook (and thence Adobe), and subsequently abandoned.

[CyberRArchiver]

Originally Posted by slm

from https://www.webopedia.com/definition...opedia%20Staff



Short for Electronic Book Exchange, a DRM standard for protecting copyright in electronic books and for distributing electronic books among publishers, distributors, retailers, libraries, and consumers. The standard was proposed by the Open EBook Forum, adopted by Glassbook (and thence Adobe), and subsequently abandoned.

I am still wondering what happened to all the EBX files. How did they vanish from the world so suddenly when you can get other eBooks of extinct formats (The RB file format for example)?

Here is one example of an EBX file I am looking for (lost for 25 years along with another related book (Geronimo Stilton's Humorous Tails) published for Microsoft Reader (LIT format)):

Please note that this is my recreation as the real book cover is unknown but it's based on one picture which can be found in the "Gallery" section of this article on Lost Media Wiki - https://lostmediawiki.com/Geronimo_S...e_eBooks;_2000)

Thanks!

[Quoth]

Basically no-one is going to keep DRM based files, or upload them. That's why EBG / LIT are rare.

I have obfuscated ebooks. PD texts were published as Library of the Future on CD (DOS and later DOS / Windows) and on mini CD in a caddy using Sony EBG. The standard CD has only access via the DOS or Windows application. 1750 Titles. I can't get it to run on a Win98SE VM. It did work on DOS and Windows 3.1. The Sony EBX version is three separate discs and compiled EBX format. That can be unraveled on Linux and the official Sony DOS EBX and EBAX emulators for DOS reads them. That does work on the Command console on Win98SE and DOSbox. I also have a Sony DD-1EX (video out only and EBG format)) and Sony DD-20 (LCD works and it's EBG/EBXA) and the 2nd part. The Sony caddies pop open and the mini-CD works in a regular drive.

The Sony Data Discman electronic books (EBG & EBXA are the 2 most common of 4 formats) are rare. The Sony Bookman is rarer and the titles even rarer (full size CDs).

There was no way to viably sell regular novels on those two Sony formats (180 MByte and 650 MByte), hence PD collections, dictionaries, encyclopedias (XA added multimedia sound, but mini Audio CDs work) and other reference works.

I think ALL the MS titles had DRM and needed online connection. Some of the Adobe EBX might be DRM free. I thought I had some, somewhere. I'll look eventually.

Project Gutenberg started in 1971-1971 and because of the issue of orphaned formats their primary format is text. Internet existed long before HTML (initial proposal 1989) and websites (1992).
I've a Palm PDA and it had at least two different pdb formats. Later Mobipocket for PalmOS could read two pdb formats, but not mobo/kf7 that Amazon inherited when they bought Mobipocket in 205, which has optional DRM. Readers on Palm, Symbian, old Windows CE, DOS and Windows 3.x

[CyberRArchiver]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Basically no-one is going to keep DRM based files, or upload them. That's why EBG / LIT are rare.

I have obfuscated ebooks. PD texts were published as Library of the Future on CD (DOS and later DOS / Windows) and on mini CD in a caddy using Sony EBG. The standard CD has only access via the DOS or Windows application. 1750 Titles. I can't get it to run on a Win98SE VM. It did work on DOS and Windows 3.1. The Sony EBX version is three separate discs and compiled EBX format. That can be unraveled on Linux and the official Sony DOS EBX and EBAX emulators for DOS reads them. That does work on the Command console on Win98SE and DOSbox. I also have a Sony DD-1EX (video out only and EBG format)) and Sony DD-20 (LCD works and it's EBG/EBXA) and the 2nd part. The Sony caddies pop open and the mini-CD works in a regular drive.

The Sony Data Discman electronic books (EBG & EBXA are the 2 most common of 4 formats) are rare. The Sony Bookman is rarer and the titles even rarer (full size CDs).

There was no way to viably sell regular novels on those two Sony formats (180 MByte and 650 MByte), hence PD collections, dictionaries, encyclopedias (XA added multimedia sound, but mini Audio CDs work) and other reference works.

I think ALL the MS titles had DRM and needed online connection. Some of the Adobe EBX might be DRM free. I thought I had some, somewhere. I'll look eventually.

Project Gutenberg started in 1971-1971 and because of the issue of orphaned formats their primary format is text. Internet existed long before HTML (initial proposal 1989) and websites (1992).
I've a Palm PDA and it had at least two different pdb formats. Later Mobipocket for PalmOS could read two pdb formats, but not mobo/kf7 that Amazon inherited when they bought Mobipocket in 205, which has optional DRM. Readers on Palm, Symbian, old Windows CE, DOS and Windows 3.x

Do you have this Geronimo Stilton eBook or something like it at least?

I would like to upload it to the IA (Internet Archive soon).

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by CyberRArchiver

Do you have this Geronimo Stilton eBook or something like it at least?

I would like to upload it to the IA (Internet Archive soon).

What ever I have I'm sure it's not that. That would be memorable.

I've stuff going back to 1990s, but there is no master catalogue and sometimes material is in the "wrong" sub directories.

[CyberRArchiver]

Originally Posted by Quoth

What ever I have I'm sure it's not that. That would be memorable.

I've stuff going back to 1990s, but there is no master catalogue and sometimes material is in the "wrong" sub directories.

I hope you will manage to find it, I am sure somehow...