Goodbye Linux: Why am ditching linux and going back to Windows 10

On 10/19/19 5:39 PM, nospam wrote:

[snip]

it does, since software to read epub is likely not installed on a
desktop or laptop, whereas just about everyone can read pdf,

There's a lot of software than can read PDF, so I wish sites would stop
saying "requires Adobe reader".

--
66 days until the winter celebration (Wed, Dec 25, 2019 12:00:00 AM for
1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another
world, is just as base as to use force." -- Hypatia (c. 370-415 CE)

On 2019-10-20 11:35, Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 10/19/19 5:39 PM, nospam wrote:

[snip]

it does, since software to read epub is likely not installed on a
desktop or laptop, whereas just about everyone can read pdf,

There's a lot of software than can read PDF, so I wish sites would stop
saying "requires Adobe reader".

private sites have the choice, if it's a government site then might it
be illegal to require any proprietary clientware, even if it's free?

On Sun, 20 Oct 2019 10:35:16 -0500, Mark Lloyd
wrote:


There's a lot of software than can read PDF, so I wish sites would stop
saying "requires Adobe reader".



Ditto! And some of the other software is a better choice than Adobe
Reader. For example, I use and prefer Foxit Reader.

On 20/10/2019 19.04, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sun, 20 Oct 2019 10:35:16 -0500, Mark Lloyd
wrote:


There's a lot of software than can read PDF, so I wish sites would stop
saying "requires Adobe reader".



Ditto! And some of the other software is a better choice than Adobe
Reader. For example, I use and prefer Foxit Reader.

Sometimes you need a reader that executes javascript in the PDFs, and
that's a danger.


The other day, by the way, I browsed to a local book shop here, and the
stupid site said my browser is old, to update it, giving links (firefox,
chrome, safari, iexplorer, edge) - which is a security failure of a big
kind, besides being false. The site failed because it required Windows,
but did not say so.

https://www.casadellibro.com/

It requires FF 52+, and I have 68.1 esr. Chrome also failed.

One may say: ok, but you need ADE to download an ebook. Yes, but I may
want to browse and buy later, or buy paper... Their loss.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 10/19/19 1:21 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

[snip]

[1] Only in a year or so, I lost - access to - the very first DRMed song
I purchased! :-(

So it wasn't a real purchase (you didn't get the thing, you were just
allowed to use it temporarily).

Yes, in the part you snipped, I explained that a 'purchase' of DRMed
material is actually a license to use ("You bought a license to use
it"). So it's indeed "just allowed to use it", but it's not
"temporarily", because - as I said - there's no time limit ("Unlike
renting, there is no time limit.").

In *my* case, it *turned out* to be temporarily, because the DRMed
audio file (WMA) wouldn't play on my replacement computer and there was
no way to transfer the 'license' from the previous computer to the new
one. So with "I lost - access to -", I meant just that, I could no
longer play it.

And to 'nitpick', even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the song
(etc. (audio/video)).

Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 20/10/2019 19.04, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sun, 20 Oct 2019 10:35:16 -0500, Mark Lloyd
wrote:


There's a lot of software than can read PDF, so I wish sites would stop
saying "requires Adobe reader".


Ditto! And some of the other software is a better choice than Adobe
Reader. For example, I use and prefer Foxit Reader.

Sometimes you need a reader that executes javascript in the PDFs, and
that's a danger.


The other day, by the way, I browsed to a local book shop here, and the
stupid site said my browser is old, to update it, giving links (firefox,
chrome, safari, iexplorer, edge) - which is a security failure of a big
kind, besides being false. The site failed because it required Windows,
but did not say so.

https://www.casadellibro.com/

It requires FF 52+, and I have 68.1 esr. Chrome also failed.

One may say: ok, but you need ADE to download an ebook. Yes, but I may
want to browse and buy later, or buy paper... Their loss.

Are you referring to this site ?

https://browser-update.org/

https://browser-update.org/contact.html

"We are a team of webdesigners, webmasters and open-web enthusiasts. Join us.

Thomas Hümmer
David Danier

Translators: ... and many more ...

Browser-Update.org is an intiative started by Webmasterpro.de."

So you can use the javascript from there, plus that
ugly icon bar, as your "badge".

And I thought that was funded by the browser companies.
Maybe there's another one of those sites (i.e. an actual
legit one :-) ) ?

Paul

On 2019-10-20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 10/19/19 1:21 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

[snip]

[1] Only in a year or so, I lost - access to - the very first DRMed song
I purchased! :-(

So it wasn't a real purchase (you didn't get the thing, you were just
allowed to use it temporarily).

Yes, in the part you snipped, I explained that a 'purchase' of DRMed
material is actually a license to use ("You bought a license to use
it"). So it's indeed "just allowed to use it", but it's not
"temporarily", because - as I said - there's no time limit ("Unlike
renting, there is no time limit.").

It is not clear under what law it is a license to use. Copyright law
controls copying not use.

In *my* case, it *turned out* to be temporarily, because the DRMed
audio file (WMA) wouldn't play on my replacement computer and there was
no way to transfer the 'license' from the previous computer to the new
one. So with "I lost - access to -", I meant just that, I could no
longer play it.

And to 'nitpick', even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the song
(etc. (audio/video)).

Except the law gives you the right to make backup copies precisely
because of the case.

On 20/10/2019 21.27, Paul wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:

....

The other day, by the way, I browsed to a local book shop here, and the
stupid site said my browser is old, to update it, giving links (firefox,
chrome, safari, iexplorer, edge) - which is a security failure of a big
kind, besides being false. The site failed because it required Windows,
but did not say so.

https://www.casadellibro.com/

It requires FF 52+, and I have 68.1 esr. Chrome also failed.

One may say: ok, but you need ADE to download an ebook. Yes, but I may
want to browse and buy later, or buy paper... Their loss.

Are you referring to this site ?

https://browser-update.org/

No, to https://www.casadellibro.com/, which is a legit site. A
bookseller. I am a long time client. Was, rather, given that page failure.


https://browser-update.org/contact.html

Does not load here.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

Frank Slootweg wrote:

even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the
song

I buy all my music CDs used for $1 or $2 USD at my local Goodwill
store. Is the store breaking the law selling me something it doesn't
own? Am I breaking the law converting the CD to song files? Is MS
breaking the law by letting me use Windows Media Player to do it? Do
I need to worry about the cops breaking down my door... 8-O

123456789 wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:

even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the
song

I buy all my music CDs used for $1 or $2 USD at my local Goodwill
store. Is the store breaking the law selling me something it doesn't
own?

You own the physical media and can do what you wish with it. The licence to
use is sold together with it.

Am I breaking the law converting the CD to song files?

In some countries format shifting is still illegal. So, in theory, yes. It
practice you're not going to be arrested as long as you don't start selling
copies.

Is MS
breaking the law by letting me use Windows Media Player to do it? Do
I need to worry about the cops breaking down my door... 8-O

Chris wrote:
123456789 wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:

even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the
song

I buy all my music CDs used for $1 or $2 USD at my local Goodwill
store. Is the store breaking the law selling me something it doesn't
own?

You own the physical media and can do what you wish with it. The licence to
use is sold together with it.

Am I breaking the law converting the CD to song files?

In some countries format shifting is still illegal. So, in theory, yes. It
practice you're not going to be arrested as long as you don't start selling
copies.

In some countries [1], *any* copying is disallowed. Guess what happens
when you *play* a song from its source!? :-)

Is MS
breaking the law by letting me use Windows Media Player to do it? Do
I need to worry about the cops breaking down my door... 8-O

[1] IIRC, Australia was one of them. Hopefully they've woken up since
then. (At least they let me escape after each trip in their wonderful
country! :-))

On 20/10/2019 00.39, nospam wrote:
In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:

Why the PDF format is so much used for
document distribution instead of epub I do not understand.

IMO, a much more familiar and used format than epub.

epub didn't exist when pdf was created.

Both things true, but do not explain why documents are not made
preferably in epub format, being better and "gratis".

because pdf is better suited for just about everything, other than
ebooks.

Just click on it and read it. Doesn't matter that it is a pdf or an
epub, really.

it does, since software to read epub is likely not installed on a
desktop or laptop, whereas just about everyone can read pdf,
particularly on a mac where it's a native format (no additional
software required).

I have not tried reading epubs in Windows, but nevertheless, the heavy
weights ADE and Calibre can read them. In Linux, in theory, I can use
Okular or Evince, maybe others, if the adequate plugin is installed.

But in Android, my preferred tool to read pdfs is EbookDroid, and also
reads djvus and epubs without a hitch.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 10/20/19 1:34 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 10/19/19 1:21 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

[snip]

[1] Only in a year or so, I lost - access to - the very first DRMed song
I purchased! :-(

So it wasn't a real purchase (you didn't get the thing, you were just
allowed to use it temporarily).

Yes, in the part you snipped, I explained that a 'purchase' of DRMed
material is actually a license to use ("You bought a license to use
it"). So it's indeed "just allowed to use it", but it's not
"temporarily", because - as I said - there's no time limit ("Unlike
renting, there is no time limit.").


It is temporarily. It's just that the time limit is not precisely defined.

In *my* case, it *turned out* to be temporarily, because the DRMed
audio file (WMA) wouldn't play on my replacement computer and there was
no way to transfer the 'license' from the previous computer to the new
one. So with "I lost - access to -", I meant just that, I could no
longer play it.

And to 'nitpick', even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the song
(etc. (audio/video)).

There is a significant difference between legal and physical restrictions.

--
65 days until the winter celebration (Wed, Dec 25, 2019 12:00:00 AM for
1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I keep hearing that Jesus Christ is coming, but nobody knows his tour
dates." [Michael Lucas]

On 22/10/2019 16.48, Bud Frede wrote:
Frank Slootweg writes:

Bud Frede wrote:
"Carlos E.R." writes:

On 19/10/2019 13.11, Bud Frede wrote:

What DRM really does is inconvenience or harm people who pay for the
content legitimately. They may not be able to make backup copies, the
content may be tied to one specific device, if the vendor goes out of
business the content may cease to be accessible, etc.

Yes, but you can do a backup; in some countries it is legal.

I live in the US, which is not very consumer-friendly at this point, and
the state that I live in is not one of the more consumer-friendly
states.

So I just have to assume that if I purchase a DRMed ebook, I'm renting
it and may not be able to read it more than once. (Maybe not even once
if I wait too long.)

You're not renting it. You bought a license to use it, often on
several devices (which are all tied to you/your_purchase). Unlike
renting, there is no time limit. Most of the time you can verify that
it's not renting, because the price is in the same ballpark as the
printed version.

If the company I rented it from goes belly-up, there's a good chance I
won't have access to it anymore.

If Adobe were to decide it didn't want to provide DRM services anymore,
a wide swath of ebooks would become unusable.

They have done that to Venezuela.


In most cases I can't resell an ebook either.

It doesn't sound like I'm purchasing it. I'm paying someone some money
to be able to access the content for an unspecified period of
time. Given that it's often tied to a device, I have to remain their
customer during this period of time too.

Do what you want, but I'm going to stick to buying from publishers that
respect me and don't use DRM.

Unfortunately, that would mean not reading the books and authors I want,
so it is not an option.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 10/20/19 1:34 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 10/19/19 1:21 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

[snip]

[1] Only in a year or so, I lost - access to - the very first DRMed song
I purchased! :-(

So it wasn't a real purchase (you didn't get the thing, you were just
allowed to use it temporarily).

Yes, in the part you snipped, I explained that a 'purchase' of DRMed
material is actually a license to use ("You bought a license to use
it"). So it's indeed "just allowed to use it", but it's not
"temporarily", because - as I said - there's no time limit ("Unlike
renting, there is no time limit.").

It is temporarily. It's just that the time limit is not precisely defined.

Pray tell, by which conditions, events, whatever would this alleged
'time limit' expire?

The only scenario I can think of is 1) the content provider goes belly
up *and* 2) all your eReaders go belly up *and* Adobe Digital Editions
ceases to exist/function/whatever. Not very likely.

In *my* case, it *turned out* to be temporarily, because the DRMed
audio file (WMA) wouldn't play on my replacement computer and there was
no way to transfer the 'license' from the previous computer to the new
one. So with "I lost - access to -", I meant just that, I could no
longer play it.

And to 'nitpick', even if you buy physical media (CD/DVD, etc.), you
are also "just allowed to use it", i.e. you also do not 'own' the song
(etc. (audio/video)).

There is a significant difference between legal and physical restrictions.