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

[snip]

Yes, but that's not the scenario we (Bud Frede, I, Mark Lloyd) are
discussing (which is alleged loss of *reading* capability after some
"not precisely defined time limit").

The DRM may not be so bad if you are RENTING the materials (they still
belong to someone else in both cases).

[snip]

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

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted."

On 10/23/19 1:22 PM, Melzzzzz wrote:
On 2019-10-23, Dan Purgert wrote:

Ken Springer wrote:
On 10/23/19 6:52 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

Ask the users in Venezuela. They can not access any Adobe service, which
renders everything they paid for useless crap.

In Venezuela, could it be Maduro's government?

Well, the US government has placed some sanction or other on them, which
means Adobe revoked all access to all license holders who happen to be
in Venezuela.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/371194/ad...o-us-sanctions

Which means, don't relie on cloud services...

Maybe OK for backup, but make sure YOU have copies too.

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

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted."

On 24/10/2019 20.12, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 21.25, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 19.53, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 16.57, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 14.08, Frank Slootweg wrote:
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.

Ask the users in Venezuela. They can not access any Adobe service, which
renders everything they paid for useless crap.

Note that we're talking about alleged loss of *reading* capability
after some "not precisely defined time limit".

"They can not access any Adobe service" is only *one* of the *three*
AND conditions I mentioned. Their eReaders should continue to work just
fine (because they are already Authorized by ADE and the epubs are
already copied to the device).

I'm not sure of that. The DRM has to be validated each time such a file
is copied or moved.

Yes, but that's not the scenario we (Bud Frede, I, Mark Lloyd) are
discussing (which is alleged loss of *reading* capability after some
"not precisely defined time limit").

It is feasible Adobe sends a signal to deauthorize
all those ebooks.

Theoretically Adobe could perhaps do that, but I doubt that would be
legal in any somewhat civilized country.

Well, I had a book or two remotely deleted on my Kobo, which is the same
thing. I suppose the book(s) will not work in ADE either or were also
deleted. I have not looked that carefully (or I have forgotten).

Do you know 'who' - i.e. Kobo, Adobe, other - deleted those books? And
how, i.e. was your Kobo connected to their servers at the time)?

Kobo.
The next time I synced the reader, the actual action was performed.
Syncing is needed to download a new book.

I see. Thanks for the info.

Note that syncing is not always needed to 'download' a new book.
Manual copying of the ADE-generated epub file to the ereader's file
system works as well.

Ah! I see.

So my point is that if the ereader is never connected to any server/
program (Kobo, Adobe, ADE, etc.), those servers/programs *cannot* delete
anything.

I see your system now. You do the download with ADE, then transfer to
the Kobo; as the Kobo is an authorized device in the list, its own, er,
adobe authorizer decodes and opens the book. As it is not connected to
internet, it doesn't learn if the book was deauthorized. Nice!

However, you lose the convenience of being able to purchase the book on
the kobo store, and have it automatically downloaded to the device, you
need an intermediate step.

I wonder if the reverse is possible: to pick the book from the kobo
device to the windows ade directory (without opening ade) and have
calibre import and "open" it, for backup.


I try to protect from such an action by *manually* (with for example
File Explorer, *not* with ADE) copying the ADE-created .epub file to our
Kobo eReader. I.e. ADE has no connection to the eReader, so how could it
delete files from it?

The thing is, such an ebook can not be read on the Kobo till ADE
authorizes it. I have not actually tested this, but that is the theory.
Maybe it works because the Kobo has an ADE license and can check on its
own if you are authorized to read that book by consulting the ADE server
on internet.

Yes, the *ebook/epub. is authorized - to your Adobe Account - by doing
an 'Add to Library' in ADE and the *ereader(s)* is/are authorized to
your account as well by a one-time 'Authorize Device...' action in ADE.

Yes, I see.


AFAIK, the device/account authorization information is stored on the
ereader itself (I am quite sure that I saw such files in the Kobo's
filesystem). And - AFAIK - the ereader can then read any epub file -
also new, manually copied, ones - which have been authorized to the same
Adobe account.

Maybe I will re-test this manual-copying bit sometime, but don't hold
your breath! :-) (To make it a valid test, I would need a new
(DRM-protected) ebook, which has never been in ADE's Library and has
never been on the ereader.)

*And* I have backup of the ADE-created .epub files, so even *if* ADE
manages to delete them/some from the eReader, I can just restore the
backup.

Should not work, either.

If the manual-copying works, restoring the backup should work as well.

It works only if you remove the DRM protection, and then you backup that
one.

But of course all of this doesn't help Joe Average User one bit,
because (s)he isn't going to take such elaborate and awkward precautions!
:-(

So I fail to see how that "renders everything they paid for useless
crap".

Because Adobe controls other things than ebooks.

True. The news article Dan pointed to doesn't even mention ebooks and
only talks about subscriptions, which DRM protected ebooks (normally)
are not.

Bottom line: The Adobe situation in Venezuela and *this* discussion
are totally seperate.

My point is that external situations can disable/delete/whatever your
DRM books, and that those situations are not theoretical. Something that
does not happen with paper books, and which makes ebooks vastly
different from plain books.

Very true. Joe Average User - and probably most users - is/are at the
mercy of these companies (and the loons which run their governments :-().

Possibly Amazon is also affected, and other companies.

Yes, I concentrated on Adobe, because that's what I have experience
with.


I seldom have to deal with Adobe, because the Kobo hides that part
transparently. I buy a book from the kobo store, and on next sync the
file is downloaded to the reader and automatically enabled by checking
with some authorized server out there. The Kobo reader contains an ADE
closed source thing for Linux, that does the "magic"; I mean, the
authorization.

Yes, I do not *have* to deal with Adobe/ADE either. I use a store
(Bol.com) which is kind of a Kobo partner. But I *can* use Adobe/ADE for
the protection which (I think) manual-copying gives and backup.

Interesting. But bol.com doesn't seem to do English.




--
Cheers, Carlos.

Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 24/10/2019 20.12, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 21.25, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 19.53, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 16.57, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 14.08, Frank Slootweg wrote:
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.

Ask the users in Venezuela. They can not access any Adobe service, which
renders everything they paid for useless crap.

Note that we're talking about alleged loss of *reading* capability
after some "not precisely defined time limit".

"They can not access any Adobe service" is only *one* of the *three*
AND conditions I mentioned. Their eReaders should continue to work just
fine (because they are already Authorized by ADE and the epubs are
already copied to the device).

I'm not sure of that. The DRM has to be validated each time such a file
is copied or moved.

Yes, but that's not the scenario we (Bud Frede, I, Mark Lloyd) are
discussing (which is alleged loss of *reading* capability after some
"not precisely defined time limit").

It is feasible Adobe sends a signal to deauthorize
all those ebooks.

Theoretically Adobe could perhaps do that, but I doubt that would be
legal in any somewhat civilized country.

Well, I had a book or two remotely deleted on my Kobo, which is the same
thing. I suppose the book(s) will not work in ADE either or were also
deleted. I have not looked that carefully (or I have forgotten).

Do you know 'who' - i.e. Kobo, Adobe, other - deleted those books? And
how, i.e. was your Kobo connected to their servers at the time)?

Kobo.
The next time I synced the reader, the actual action was performed.
Syncing is needed to download a new book.

I see. Thanks for the info.

Note that syncing is not always needed to 'download' a new book.
Manual copying of the ADE-generated epub file to the ereader's file
system works as well.

Ah! I see.

So my point is that if the ereader is never connected to any server/
program (Kobo, Adobe, ADE, etc.), those servers/programs *cannot* delete
anything.

I see your system now. You do the download with ADE, then transfer to
the Kobo; as the Kobo is an authorized device in the list, its own, er,
adobe authorizer decodes and opens the book. As it is not connected to
internet, it doesn't learn if the book was deauthorized. Nice!

However, you lose the convenience of being able to purchase the book on
the kobo store, and have it automatically downloaded to the device, you
need an intermediate step.

Yes, you 'lose' that convenience and that means that for most people
it would be too much of a bother.

I say 'lose' in scare quotes, because you could do my trick also
*after* an earlier automatic download. (That was what I actually did,
because I wanted backup of our already downloaded (and read) ebooks.)

BUT,AFAICT, 'someone'/'something' (Kobo, Adobe, ADE, whatever) could
still deauthorize old ebooks on any subsequent WiFi connect of the Kobo
ereader. It's unclear if such a deauthorization would do any actual
harm, because your backup copy of the *.epub* is still unchanged and the
*device* is still authorized to your Adobe account. Does the ereader
store the authorization status of each .epub file? I do not think so
(that's ADE's job), but I do not know for sure.

I wonder if the reverse is possible: to pick the book from the kobo
device to the windows ade directory (without opening ade) and have
calibre import and "open" it, for backup.

I did not do this exact thing, but very something similar. You can do
an 'Add books' in Calibre and give it an .pub file from ADE's
'\Users\user\Documents\My Digital Editions' folder. It will be added
to Calibre's Library, but you cannot 'View'/read it, because Calibre
cannot view DRM-protected ebooks:

"This book is DRMed

This book is locked by DRM. To learn
more about DRM and why you cannot
read or convert this book in calibre, click
here."

So, for backup, you might just as well backup ADE's 'My Digital
Editions' folder to some other place, i.e. copy all .epubs, but do not
delete any files from the destination, which have been deleted from the
source.

I try to protect from such an action by *manually* (with for example
File Explorer, *not* with ADE) copying the ADE-created .epub file to our
Kobo eReader. I.e. ADE has no connection to the eReader, so how could it
delete files from it?

The thing is, such an ebook can not be read on the Kobo till ADE
authorizes it. I have not actually tested this, but that is the theory.
Maybe it works because the Kobo has an ADE license and can check on its
own if you are authorized to read that book by consulting the ADE server
on internet.

Yes, the *ebook/epub. is authorized - to your Adobe Account - by doing
an 'Add to Library' in ADE and the *ereader(s)* is/are authorized to
your account as well by a one-time 'Authorize Device...' action in ADE.

Yes, I see.


AFAIK, the device/account authorization information is stored on the
ereader itself (I am quite sure that I saw such files in the Kobo's
filesystem). And - AFAIK - the ereader can then read any epub file -
also new, manually copied, ones - which have been authorized to the same
Adobe account.

Maybe I will re-test this manual-copying bit sometime, but don't hold
your breath! :-) (To make it a valid test, I would need a new
(DRM-protected) ebook, which has never been in ADE's Library and has
never been on the ereader.)

*And* I have backup of the ADE-created .epub files, so even *if* ADE
manages to delete them/some from the eReader, I can just restore the
backup.

Should not work, either.

If the manual-copying works, restoring the backup should work as well.

It works only if you remove the DRM protection, and then you backup that
one.

But of course all of this doesn't help Joe Average User one bit,
because (s)he isn't going to take such elaborate and awkward precautions!
:-(

So I fail to see how that "renders everything they paid for useless
crap".

Because Adobe controls other things than ebooks.

True. The news article Dan pointed to doesn't even mention ebooks and
only talks about subscriptions, which DRM protected ebooks (normally)
are not.

Bottom line: The Adobe situation in Venezuela and *this* discussion
are totally seperate.

My point is that external situations can disable/delete/whatever your
DRM books, and that those situations are not theoretical. Something that
does not happen with paper books, and which makes ebooks vastly
different from plain books.

Very true. Joe Average User - and probably most users - is/are at the
mercy of these companies (and the loons which run their governments :-().

Possibly Amazon is also affected, and other companies.

Yes, I concentrated on Adobe, because that's what I have experience
with.


I seldom have to deal with Adobe, because the Kobo hides that part
transparently. I buy a book from the kobo store, and on next sync the
file is downloaded to the reader and automatically enabled by checking
with some authorized server out there. The Kobo reader contains an ADE
closed source thing for Linux, that does the "magic"; I mean, the
authorization.

Yes, I do not *have* to deal with Adobe/ADE either. I use a store
(Bol.com) which is kind of a Kobo partner. But I *can* use Adobe/ADE for
the protection which (I think) manual-copying gives and backup.

Interesting. But bol.com doesn't seem to do English.

Yes, Bol.com is a 'local' Dutch conglomorate (sp?) of shops. Basically
the Dutch Amazon (IIRC, Bol.com predates Amazon).

On 25/10/2019 20.20, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 24/10/2019 20.12, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 21.25, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 19.53, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 16.57, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 23/10/2019 14.08, Frank Slootweg wrote:
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.

Ask the users in Venezuela. They can not access any Adobe service, which
renders everything they paid for useless crap.

Note that we're talking about alleged loss of *reading* capability
after some "not precisely defined time limit".

"They can not access any Adobe service" is only *one* of the *three*
AND conditions I mentioned. Their eReaders should continue to work just
fine (because they are already Authorized by ADE and the epubs are
already copied to the device).

I'm not sure of that. The DRM has to be validated each time such a file
is copied or moved.

Yes, but that's not the scenario we (Bud Frede, I, Mark Lloyd) are
discussing (which is alleged loss of *reading* capability after some
"not precisely defined time limit").

It is feasible Adobe sends a signal to deauthorize
all those ebooks.

Theoretically Adobe could perhaps do that, but I doubt that would be
legal in any somewhat civilized country.

Well, I had a book or two remotely deleted on my Kobo, which is the same
thing. I suppose the book(s) will not work in ADE either or were also
deleted. I have not looked that carefully (or I have forgotten).

Do you know 'who' - i.e. Kobo, Adobe, other - deleted those books? And
how, i.e. was your Kobo connected to their servers at the time)?

Kobo.
The next time I synced the reader, the actual action was performed.
Syncing is needed to download a new book.

I see. Thanks for the info.

Note that syncing is not always needed to 'download' a new book.
Manual copying of the ADE-generated epub file to the ereader's file
system works as well.

Ah! I see.

So my point is that if the ereader is never connected to any server/
program (Kobo, Adobe, ADE, etc.), those servers/programs *cannot* delete
anything.

I see your system now. You do the download with ADE, then transfer to
the Kobo; as the Kobo is an authorized device in the list, its own, er,
adobe authorizer decodes and opens the book. As it is not connected to
internet, it doesn't learn if the book was deauthorized. Nice!

However, you lose the convenience of being able to purchase the book on
the kobo store, and have it automatically downloaded to the device, you
need an intermediate step.

Yes, you 'lose' that convenience and that means that for most people
it would be too much of a bother.

I say 'lose' in scare quotes, because you could do my trick also
*after* an earlier automatic download. (That was what I actually did,
because I wanted backup of our already downloaded (and read) ebooks.)

BUT,AFAICT, 'someone'/'something' (Kobo, Adobe, ADE, whatever) could
still deauthorize old ebooks on any subsequent WiFi connect of the Kobo
ereader. It's unclear if such a deauthorization would do any actual
harm, because your backup copy of the *.epub* is still unchanged and the
*device* is still authorized to your Adobe account. Does the ereader
store the authorization status of each .epub file? I do not think so
(that's ADE's job), but I do not know for sure.

The kobo firmware contains software licensed by Adobe. I don't know what
exactly it does, but part of it is "activating" a book and decoding it,
same as ADE. Otherwise, it is impossible to download via wifi directly
to the reader from upstream.


I wonder if the reverse is possible: to pick the book from the kobo
device to the windows ade directory (without opening ade) and have
calibre import and "open" it, for backup.

I did not do this exact thing, but very something similar. You can do
an 'Add books' in Calibre and give it an .pub file from ADE's
'\Users\user\Documents\My Digital Editions' folder. It will be added
to Calibre's Library, but you cannot 'View'/read it, because Calibre
cannot view DRM-protected ebooks:

"This book is DRMed

This book is locked by DRM. To learn
more about DRM and why you cannot
read or convert this book in calibre, click
here."

You forget about the plugin ;-)


So, for backup, you might just as well backup ADE's 'My Digital
Editions' folder to some other place, i.e. copy all .epubs, but do not
delete any files from the destination, which have been deleted from the
source.

I try to protect from such an action by *manually* (with for example
File Explorer, *not* with ADE) copying the ADE-created .epub file to our
Kobo eReader. I.e. ADE has no connection to the eReader, so how could it
delete files from it?

The thing is, such an ebook can not be read on the Kobo till ADE
authorizes it. I have not actually tested this, but that is the theory.
Maybe it works because the Kobo has an ADE license and can check on its
own if you are authorized to read that book by consulting the ADE server
on internet.

Yes, the *ebook/epub. is authorized - to your Adobe Account - by doing
an 'Add to Library' in ADE and the *ereader(s)* is/are authorized to
your account as well by a one-time 'Authorize Device...' action in ADE.

Yes, I see.


AFAIK, the device/account authorization information is stored on the
ereader itself (I am quite sure that I saw such files in the Kobo's
filesystem). And - AFAIK - the ereader can then read any epub file -
also new, manually copied, ones - which have been authorized to the same
Adobe account.

Maybe I will re-test this manual-copying bit sometime, but don't hold
your breath! :-) (To make it a valid test, I would need a new
(DRM-protected) ebook, which has never been in ADE's Library and has
never been on the ereader.)

*And* I have backup of the ADE-created .epub files, so even *if* ADE
manages to delete them/some from the eReader, I can just restore the
backup.

Should not work, either.

If the manual-copying works, restoring the backup should work as well.

It works only if you remove the DRM protection, and then you backup that
one.

But of course all of this doesn't help Joe Average User one bit,
because (s)he isn't going to take such elaborate and awkward precautions!
:-(

So I fail to see how that "renders everything they paid for useless
crap".

Because Adobe controls other things than ebooks.

True. The news article Dan pointed to doesn't even mention ebooks and
only talks about subscriptions, which DRM protected ebooks (normally)
are not.

Bottom line: The Adobe situation in Venezuela and *this* discussion
are totally seperate.

My point is that external situations can disable/delete/whatever your
DRM books, and that those situations are not theoretical. Something that
does not happen with paper books, and which makes ebooks vastly
different from plain books.

Very true. Joe Average User - and probably most users - is/are at the
mercy of these companies (and the loons which run their governments :-().

Possibly Amazon is also affected, and other companies.

Yes, I concentrated on Adobe, because that's what I have experience
with.


I seldom have to deal with Adobe, because the Kobo hides that part
transparently. I buy a book from the kobo store, and on next sync the
file is downloaded to the reader and automatically enabled by checking
with some authorized server out there. The Kobo reader contains an ADE
closed source thing for Linux, that does the "magic"; I mean, the
authorization.

Yes, I do not *have* to deal with Adobe/ADE either. I use a store
(Bol.com) which is kind of a Kobo partner. But I *can* use Adobe/ADE for
the protection which (I think) manual-copying gives and backup.

Interesting. But bol.com doesn't seem to do English.

Yes, Bol.com is a 'local' Dutch conglomorate (sp?) of shops. Basically
the Dutch Amazon (IIRC, Bol.com predates Amazon).

Ah.
Well, yes, I buy from Kobo and others (like Baen ebooks) items in
English; but those in Spanish I buy from a local place, Casa del Libro
(house of the book), which sells their own device, the Tagus. I think it
is theirs, there is no wikipedia article with more independent information.



--
Cheers, Carlos.

Frank Slootweg wrote:

Yes, the publisher/distributor *could* revoke the license, if they
think it shouldn't have been granted in the first place (for whatever
reason), but that's not a normal event.

“Ebooks Purchased From Microsoft Will Be Deleted This Month Because You
Don't Really Own Anything Anymore�

https://gizmodo.com/ebooks-purchased-from-microsoft-will-be-deleted-this-mo-1836005672

Stephen Hall wrote:

Frank Slootweg wrote:

Yes, the publisher/distributor *could* revoke the license, if they
think it shouldn't have been granted in the first place (for whatever
reason), but that's not a normal event.

´Ebooks Purchased From Microsoft Will Be Deleted This Month Because You
Don't Really Own Anything Anymore¡

https://gizmodo.com/ebooks-purchased-from-microsoft-will-be-deleted-this-mo-1836005672

Microsoft's e-book revenue was probably so dismal that they won't have
to refund much. Microsoft gets into technology late, which is also true
of ePub docs. 10 years after Amazon introduced Kindle (lureware to
their e-book store), Microsoft decides it wants a slice of the pie and
opened its own e-book store. But the slice was so tiny that Microsoft
couldn't qualify the cost of operating its servers. 2 years later,
Microsoft shuts down their e-book store. A few months later, Microsoft
scrambles away from supporting ePub docs altogether. ePub support got
yanked from Edge in the September update to Windows 10; see:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...date-kb4516059

Microsoft's solution? Go to their Store to get an app. Why an app
(instead of a free application)? Because Microsoft gets a 5% commisions
on sales of apps through their store. If I had any e-books or I get
some later, I'd probably use Calibre. Not the Calibre app (which costs
$1.09 which rewards a nickel to Microsoft for killing their e-book
service and their epub support), but the wholly free non-adware Win32
version of Calibre.