Maaaan, I wish ereader open source software was better. This is one of the areas where I feel the gulf between corporate garbage and free alternatives most. It’s just a hassle to manage, feature-poor, has terrible UI or all of the above.
My favorite Calibre thing was when the creator was interviewed and asked about the common complaint that Calibre is ugly and he was basically like “actually it’s not.”
First off, I didn’t know the guy’s name is “Kovid”. It must have been a very weird five years for him.
Second, this is an amazing piece of text and I will show it to people to explain why having engineers make design decisions is often a terrible idea.
I genuinely believe there is a strong correlation between FOSS projects getting structured and well funded enough to hire designers and their chance of taking over as the default choice against commercial projects. If UX designers were as interested in volunteer work as engineers the software landscape would be completely different.
https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill is a thing, although you have to get the exact model in order to make it work.
I really wanted https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book to be a thing, but its very hard to get the parts and assemble (in my opinion).
https://gitlab.com/guyjeangilles/piereader looks promising.
Honestly, the biggest hurtle does NOT appear to be the hardware, its getting the ebook in an open format. If Amazon removes the ability to download the files, then it really doesn’t matter what you run, you cant read your book.
Theres other publishers that give you all the file types like: https://www.baen.com/. I recommend finding and supporting those.
I have a sizable collection of legitimately procured ebooks, it’s not that rare if you prioritize it.
But I agree, it’s not about hardware. There are plenty of super premium eink displays these days. I don’t even want integration with a eink reader at all. I’m happy reading off an OLED screen in a tablet. All I need is convenient library, management and display software that will handle both text and comic book formats.
Everybody seems to be trying to mimic the Kindle ecosystem with all its quirks and hardware dependencies when what I really want is book Plex.
Nice having your own library is the way to go!
If you download your books, how do you read them in other hardware? Aren’t they all drm locked?
I heavily depends on where you get them. Most ebook publishers actually DONT put DRM on them. And other software can very easily remove the DRM if it is on the books.
Most systems can read the ebook format. Linux/Mac/Windows often comes with software. And if they dont, Calibre can work them.
My point is what’s the point of downloading kindle ebooks if they can only be read after connecting to the cloud or whatever anyway?Read the second part of your comment lol.
What other software?
https://github.com/nodrm/DeDRM_tools is just the first one that pops up. Theres a LOT of software out there that does this. I would recommend getting a copy as GitHub has been going after “grey” repos for a bit once they are discovered (see switch emulation and the many fan games).
Most of the time, I personally just avoid by going to publishers that dont lock down books. They make things much easier than Amazon.
I agree on the outdated UI, but at least it gives you a ton of options that official apps would never allow you, or babysit you too much to offer.
I’ve literally used Calibre 2-3 times, and while the UI seemed daunting at first, it was logical and did did its job quite fast when figured out. And I usually don’t need to use it afterwards for another long period.
Well, “logical” is a bit of a stretch. After my second or third round of trying to use it for all my DRM-free ebooks I was quickly reminded that a) it insists on copying all your books into a separate folder for some reason, and b) its reading UX is atrocious. The thing is unreadable on my tablet by default and it won’t even try with comics, instead just prompting you for an actually usable app to do the reading part.
I am sure it was made to deal with a legitimate use case, but man, is it not my use case. Which, to reiterate, is I own a bunch of ebooks and comics and want to read them sometimes.
I hear their selfhosted web app may be better at this, and I’ve also taken a peek at kavita, I’ve just been too annoyed by having to go point a docker container at my library when the books are just sitting there and I can just open them. It really feels like it should be more straightforward and convenient than that.
No kidding. Really tried using it for a month. But it was just terrible interfacing with it.
Damn, that color one looks very nice!
The color ones have lower resolution screens and less contrast+brightness than black and white. If you read comics it’s a big step up, but if you read mostly black and white text, it’s a downgrade.
i went this exact route a few months ago–along with anna’s archive, best investment ever
Put it on airplane mode the day I bought it. Calibre is godsent
Wait, you guys were buying books from Amazon?
Yeah, some of us made that miskate years ago. I can transfer mp3 just fine, why can’t I transfer a book file too? Lots of people entire book libraries are being held hostage by Amazon.
DRM ripping was a pain, I used some sketch program that had only worked with a specific old version of Kindle for PC to turn all my books into ebubs.
I love my kindle, but not buying books from Amazon anymore and next ereader won’t be kindle.
Fun unrelated fact, kindle unlimited books could also be downloaded for USB transfer.
Yeah it is strange. I have bought mp3s on Amazon and downloaded the DRM free mp3 to listen to on my preferred player of choice. But, why is the stance on books different?
Amazon was originally a bookseller, so it was their main source of income. I don’t know how much money they make from MP3s, but it probably isn’t much. I don’t think DRMing their music is worth it for them. Many people view music as a service now and don’t even own any music. I keep expecting Amazon to switch over to streaming-only like Google did.
Then use the library for the rest of the series if needed. :-).
Good luck doing that to my 2012 5th gen Kindle that’s been off the update schedule for an eternity.
The title is misleading, they’re removing the ability to download and transfer from the Amazon side
So i won’t be able to download my ebooks from amazon.com to my PC, right?
Correct. If you do it now, there’s a notice about this feature going away.
Kindle jailbreak ftw
A friend of mine was curious about this Kindle jailbreak of which you speak. Could you elaborate on how the jailbreak works for a Kindle?
Tell your friend to search for winterbreak
You should definitely not try to find info on how to take your Kindle on a WinterBreak ;)
Oh snap! This has opened up a whole new rabbit hole for
memy friend.
The discontinuation does not eliminate the ability to drag and drop files onto a Kindle; it simply removes a method that facilitated piracy by transferring older retail book formats via USB.
Err, what? So it’s only going to block certain file types?
They’re removing the ability to download ebooks from Amazon. You are still able to add books via USB to your device.
The piracy is because you could download your Amazon ebook, strip the DRM and transform it to a more generic format, and distribute it. Unfortunately this now means you’ll be unable to make copies of your books for “backup in case Amazon decides to remove access” purposes.
The only effect this will have on me is that I’m going to stop buying books from Amazon.
I used my kindle for 10 years now, and I never bought one. I did buy ebooks 3rd party plenty.
Well, feeling glad I already strip the DRM for my backups last month. Not buying anymore from em at all.
Oh, good. I was thinking about buying one but I guess I won’t anymore.
For me a big hesitation for getting an e-reader was not feeling like I owned my own media. I love books and felt like this was a very of it ain’t broke, don’t fix it problem. After getting one as a gift, I’m a huge fan, I read more than ever and really prefer the e-reader format now. Unfortunately I think society at large is so used to not owning things anymore that there probably won’t be too many people turned off by this. Glad to hear it matters to you - would encourage you to give a different brand / platform a try.
I got a second hand 2011 model for free. I leave it in airplane mode and copy the books over via USB after converting them with calibre. I would not buy an amazon e-reader in the future. Simply because they are a shitty company.
Some hypothetical advice needed…
I bought books through Amazon and used the Kindle app on my phone and Mac. Is there still a method to get these books into an alternative like Calibre or am I screwed if I’ve updated the Kindle app on my Mac?
I want to delete my Amazon account, but I’d love to keep the books I “bought” and “own”.
https://www.cloudwards.net/remove-drm-from-kindle-books/
This currently works, but I don’t know if it will continue working forever - probably not too much longer after this announcement.
The “old Kindle PC app” might keep working in the future, but my guess is that it’s going to be done soon as well.
edit: One thing I ran into was after installing the kindle app and turning off the auto-update, it still updates. So keep the installer handy and just reinstall it as needed.
Nothing is certain, but it looks like you will still be able to download books into local memory so you can read them. As long as the apps still work that way, it will be possible to access the book files.
You do need a tool that can remove the DRM from the books files the Kindle uses. DeDRM used to do this nicely, but it has not been updated to handle the most recent version of Kindle DRM. It will not works on any books published since early 2024.
There are commercial options that can remove even the latest DRM from Kindle books. I use Epubor Ultimate. It was the first to handle the most recent Kindle DRM, but I’m sure there are others by now.
It is probably worth noting that I am removing the DRM so I can read them on devices that do not have Kindle apps.
Yeah, it’s been hit and miss with downloading from the Kindle. I mostly get books from the library and strip the DRM from there. I figure it’s a win-win, because the library gets a record of the checkout, but then I get to read it at my leisure while the next person gets to read it.
It’s a streaming service for books at that point.
So no download from their website?
More loss of control over our data. Boycott Kindle’s and their store if you dont agree with this. Amazon is too big, they control too much.
