

Amazon Kindle for PC Beta Launched - Hates_
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_85986771_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0MQ15NQYE02FHATEGYSZ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=498194951&pf_rd_i=507846

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travisp
FYI, it actually kind of works for me in Linux under Wine.

Installation worked perfectly for me. The only problem is that all of the text
in the main application does not display (missing font?). But by clicking on
random buttons, you can find books you've already bought. The text for the
books displays fine, but again you can only see some fonts:

bookmark font works (you can browse bookmarks you've made) But table of
contents, searching does not work so well because their font doesn't display).

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paulsmith
Yeah I just tried it too (Ubuntu 9.10, wine 1.0.1) and had the same result --
app seems to work (i.e., I can click around, pull up my books, read them), but
none of the UI text appears.

Is there a way to inspect what font/typeface the app is expecting to load?

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chris123
When's the Mac version due?

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fortes
Sadly, like the iPhone application, this doesn't work for magazines purchased
through the Kindle store. Not sure why they're restricting the non-device
applications to books only.

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dpcan
Wonderful! My stupid first-gen EEE pc with XP finally has a use other than
coffee cup coaster (Because it gets so damn hot it can keep my coffee warm.)

On another note, Amazon apparently just gave me a free Kindle. Sweet. Does
this mean that they actually had no intention of making money on the device
itself, it was all about selling books without having to stock and ship them?

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jimmybot
More broadly, a software store with automatic updates on the Windows-PC
platform could be huge.

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patio11
It would be wonderful for software developers (if it got traction) but there
is no reason why it is helpful for software _customers_.

Nobody wakes up in the morning and says "You know what I need? An App Store on
my machine, to help shareware developers sell more software to me!"

(P.S. It has worked wonderfully for Steam though, and wonderfully but less
famously for one or two other game distribution networks like Stardock. They
all give value adds for installing the "store" system -- priority distribution
of games, deeply discounted games, and kinder friendlier DRM being three of
the big ones.)

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jimmybot
One of the things I really like about Ubuntu is that I can download and
install the right version of a wide variety of program for my machine very
easily. And it lets me keep up to date without thinking about it. A lot of
programs don't update automatically and those that do are doing it right when
I don't want it to--when I start the program up. If there was a similar system
for Windows, I would definitely consider switching back.

If developers have a good distribution system, there's greater incentive to
invest more in making better software. There's a chicken-and-egg problem here
since unless the platform has worthwhile programs, no one is going to install
it, but Steam is one example, and Microsoft could do it themselves and that
would guaranteed to be adopted, if there's no legal problems there.

Distributing free programs (How about keep my Python and Notepad++ up to
date?) would be a way to bootstrap as well.

EDIT: Firefox Add-ons also looks like it's moving towards a store with
donations as a preliminary trial, and remember add-ons can also be standalone
applications running off of xulrunner:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=892073>

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ScottWhigham
Awesome - I just uploaded a new ebook to Amazon and was going to have to
borrow a friend's Kindle to see what it looked like.

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jacquesm
What's the title of your book ?

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allwein
I'm going to assume that he's talking about "How to Become a C# Programmer"
<http://bit.ly/2OlHRI>, unless he's published multiple ebooks within the last
week.

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chwahoo
Great! - this is a move in the right direction. I'm really hoping for a web
version.

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jacquesm
Not to be snarky, by why do a mac, a PC and a web version even make sense ?

Isn't the whole point of the kindle that you can use it as a book ?

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dmuino
I leave my kindle at home most of the time. Sometimes, while at work, I wish I
could take a look at a particular passage of a book. The iphone app is OK for
waiting rooms, but is definitely not ideal for more than casual reading.
Having a mac version would be very helpful for me.

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zandorg
Just a note... It appears the installer is Nullsoft's NSIS system.

