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Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

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Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#101

Post by ggm »

I feel strongly that Amazon can sell kindles and we're ok, and amazon can sell content and we're ok but having amazon able to sell both kindle and content, and direct IPR outcomes across the platform and the content, is actually pretty bad.

This is not a real substitutable space. Yes, we have other e-readers. No, there is a market dominant platform and that has consequences.

Because book IPR is bound in past practices and publishers as a closed shop, the motivations to fix this here, are mixed.

As readers/consumers I think we are ill-served by the outcome.

I suspect Authors, and authors agents would agree. its not equitable.

Not the least problem is that book IPR is very nationally focussed. Kindle is a trans-national concept. The segmented market is hugely frustrating.

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#102

Post by rriepe »

vetinari wrote: post #49
rriepe wrote: post #19

Wow, huge bummer. This is how I generated and edited my Kindle book... not sure what to do now.

If you have your copy of kindlegen, it will continue to work - it is a 32-bit statically linked binary, so as long as your kernel supports 32-bit processes and 32-bit ELF files, you are good to go. That it is available for download changes nothing; it has not been updated for years anyway. The mac version was in worse shape, it was also 32-bit, so it didn't run on Catalina at all.

Ironically I've just made a Mac-to-Linux workflow change.

I can probably still figure something out with another machine and Windows. Thanks for the tip though.

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#103

Post by latexr »

acabal wrote: post #52

Calibre was always much better at generating Kindle-compatible books than Kindlegen ever was. We use Calibre in our posix-based build chain at Standard Ebooks. The Kindle file format is just miserable, and Kindle is basically the IE6 of ereaders. Anyone who cares about ebooks should get a different device that supports epub natively. Kobo makes nice devices, supports epub, and uses Webkit as their renderer (when used…

> when used with their kepub format, which is not ideal

I recommend kepubify[1] as a dead-simple[2] converter.

[1]: https://pgaskin.net/kepubify/

[2]: If you’re minimally comfortable with the command-line.

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#104

Post by asicsp »

swiley wrote: post #15

Ew. So you need a windows machine/VM just to publish on the platform? That’s almost iPhone levels of crappy.

No. You can submit your work as epub, docx, and some more formats. You can then view how the converted version looks on various devices on the amazon website. I used google docs for a short story and the docx version worked the best (epub from google docs had some weird spacing issues).

The software helps as an alternative to having to submit it on amazon website during the various drafts.

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#105

Post by jwiley »

se32point1 wrote: post #51
jwiley wrote: post #48

Others specifically mentioned Kobo as an alternative. I did a high level pass over the ecosystem before choosing them as an alternative to the Amazon monopoly, they seem somewhat equivalent to Chrome vs Firefox: - supported formats, for the Linux issue: EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR - no native linux client: not a deal breaker for me - is the company behind Kobo credible,…

If you mean this, https://www.amazon.com/b?node=17717476011 , the Kobo indeed has many of those features as of now. Supports searching a Dictionary, Wikipedia, Google, and adding notes. There are translations in the Dictionary, but the "Word Wise" feature does not exist, but I can live without that. I can understand some who wouldn't, though.

I was thinking of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Ray_(Amazon_Kindle) ...roughly the same thing, or maybe the same thing under different branding.

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#106

Post by rumanator »

ggm wrote: post #101

I feel strongly that Amazon can sell kindles and we're ok, and amazon can sell content and we're ok but having amazon able to sell both kindle and content, and direct IPR outcomes across the platform and the content, is actually pretty bad. This is not a real substitutable space. Yes, we have other e-readers. No, there is a market dominant platform and that has consequences. Because book IPR is bound in past practice…

> I feel strongly that Amazon can sell kindles and we're ok, and amazon can sell content and we're ok but having amazon able to sell both kindle and content, and direct IPR outcomes across the platform and the content, is actually pretty bad.

Was anyone doing any of that prior to Amazon's bet on kindle?

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#107

Post by ggm »

rumanator wrote: post #106
ggm wrote: post #101

I feel strongly that Amazon can sell kindles and we're ok, and amazon can sell content and we're ok but having amazon able to sell both kindle and content, and direct IPR outcomes across the platform and the content, is actually pretty bad. This is not a real substitutable space. Yes, we have other e-readers. No, there is a market dominant platform and that has consequences. Because book IPR is bound in past practice…

> I feel strongly that Amazon can sell kindles and we're ok, and amazon can sell content and we're ok but having amazon able to sell both kindle and content, and direct IPR outcomes across the platform and the content, is actually pretty bad. Was anyone doing any of that prior to Amazon's bet on kindle?

Was anyone doing any of that prior to gutenbergs bet on the printing press..

No. Kindle was transformative. But, we do not perpetuate market advantage when things become a social utility, and to say "freedom of choice" when the IPR is not actually equally available on all readers, when Kindle can (and do) delete content from you, when they respect the global national IPR framework but also intrude adverts into the flow...

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#108

Post by rumanator »

ggm wrote: post #107
rumanator wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel strongly that Amazon can sell kindles and we're ok, and amazon can sell content and we're ok but having amazon able to sell both kindle and content, and direct IPR outcomes across the platform and the content, is actually pretty bad. Was anyone doing any of that prior to Amazon's bet on kindle?

Was anyone doing any of that prior to gutenbergs bet on the printing press.. No. Kindle was transformative. But, we do not perpetuate market advantage when things become a social utility, and to say "freedom of choice" when the IPR is not actually equally available on all readers, when Kindle can (and do) delete content from you, when they respect the global national IPR framework but also intrude adverts into the fl…

> Was anyone doing any of that prior to gutenbergs bet on the printing press..

That comment is disingenuous and outright deceitful.

Guttemberg wasn't selling ebooks that downloaded books from an online store. My question was who else offered a similar product to Amazon when Amazon launched Kindle.

Re: Amazon drops Linux support for generating Kindle ebooks

#110

Post by ggm »

rumanator wrote: post #108
ggm wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was anyone doing any of that prior to gutenbergs bet on the printing press.. No. Kindle was transformative. But, we do not perpetuate market advantage when things become a social utility, and to say "freedom of choice" when the IPR is not actually equally available on all readers, when Kindle can (and do) delete content from you, when they respect the global national IPR framework but also intrude adverts into the fl…

> Was anyone doing any of that prior to gutenbergs bet on the printing press.. That comment is disingenuous and outright deceitful. Guttemberg wasn't selling ebooks that downloaded books from an online store. My question was who else offered a similar product to Amazon when Amazon launched Kindle.

Did you read the rest of my comment? It addressed the matter of substance. Ask yourself what other field of a like nature has led to an outcome of this type. Does a Sony VHS only read Sony produced films? Does a Philips CD player only play Dutch cds? Does an iPhone only play iPhone music? Does chrome refuse to show pages for Microsoft?

The Kindle imposes a strong wall that (pdf aside) says only Kindle managed epub is routinely available and then imposes constraints on how content is added 'for a better reader experience'

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