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By David Rothman

Update, 1:36 p.m.: FBReader installation instructions for Linux geeks now appear at the end of this post. In fact, some patient and careful newbies might also succeed. – D.R.

olpcebooksmalllargerWe’re a little closer to e-book nirvana. FBReader, which in most incarnations can read .epub, the new standard e-book format from the IDPF, is now running on the OLPC laptop.

In case you’re tuning in late, that’s the machine with an extra-sharp screen and the ability to let you fold it into a tablet—-the green gizmo that made the 60 Minutes TV newsmagazine and may eventually sell for just $100.

Big thanks to Bennett Todd, who just posted a message on an OLPC software development list. Rupka, another list member, is ecstatic. And Ian Daniher is also encouraging.

Now to see FBReader with the child-optimized Sugar interface, once that’s worked out! Oh, the glories of open source!

The OLPC laptop is for international use, and suddenly educational publishers, if not fixated on DRM, have a huge new potential market even though many countries will prefer to use locally originated material.

fbreader4Just as significantly, with FBReader available, the OLPC laptop will be a more promising machine for public libraries. Having been burned by the Gemstar and other machines with e-book formats that vanished from the mainstream, librarians should seriously consider trying out OLPC’s XO. It doesn’t come with all the gotchas that the Amazon Kindle does, including a terms of service agreement that might prevent libraries from lending the machines to patrons.

Frustration department: For two days now, OLPC’s warehouse folks have told me my laptop would be shipping almost immediately. But so far it hasn’t shown up in the FedEx tracking system, sob, sob.

Oh, well, I’ve got a lot to forward to. As noted before in the TeleBlog, I’ve waited years for a machine like this. A few more days won’t kill me.

Details: First picture shows the OLPC laptop running a reading program other than FBReader. Second shot is of FBReader’s Windows version set up for narrow-column use, which some kids with reading problems might prefer. FBReader allows precise control of typography. I hope that even the Sugarized version will retain the software’s flexibility. Another detail is that FBReader can’t use .epub’s CSS capabilities. But I’d be surprised if it didn’t have them in time.

Thanks to Wayan Vota of the unofficial but oh-so-informative OLPC News—interviewed on 60 Minutes’ OLPC segment, by the way—for the link.

Update: Bennett kindly shared with me his instructions for Linux fans. Less adventurous novices might want to wait for the Sugarized version of FBReader. Use Ctrl-Alt-F2 (F2 is the Friends key) to reach the command line. Go here to see what these keys look like on the XO keyboard. A further update: Yes, FBReader will do .epub on the XO (thanks to Alan Wallcraft for this info). Okay, Bennett’s instructions follow:

At the moment, this is for Linux geeks; you have to be comfortable becoming root to install an application, and using non-Sugar, X11 graphics controls to adjust the configuration. I don’t know if anyone is going to Sugar-ize this. I’ve not yet explored how much of the customization I can pre-do in an OLPC XO-specific varient distro of FBReader. Please note that I’m neither an FBReader developer nor (yet) a Sugar developer, I’m just a very happy recipient of a give-1-get-1 as a christmas present from my wife. FBReader loads novels plenty quickly enough for me, and does page turns fast enough that it doesn’t bother me. Noticable but brief delay. I don’t use epub, I’ve been reading ebooks for many, many years on a series of palmos gizmos, mostly with weasel reader (nee gutenpalm) so in zTXT. I just moved my library from my Treo to the XO. SD cards work in both.

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Bring up the Terminal app. Install FBReader:

su -c ‘rpm -i http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/updates/7/i386/fbreader-0.8.8-2.fc7.i386.rpm’

[One line with a space between the -i and the http. - D.R.]

Start it up by typing “FBReader”. There’s a little tool icon, third from the right on the top. Use that to dial the font size down, pump up the inter-line spacing, maybe add a bit to the margins. Note the place it wants to look for books. Put some books there; either download ‘em with wget on the OLPC, or download ‘em somewhere else and move ‘em with a USB stick or SD card. “Enter” toggles the FBReader app to full-screen. Use FBReader’s control to rotate it 90 degrees if you want to swivel the XO into tablet mode. Use the “Keys” part of the config tool to tell FBReader to use a couple of the game-pad keys for “Large Scroll Down” (AKA page down) and up.

A suggestion: Especially since I lack access to an XO, I hope people won’t hesitate to point out possible omissions or errors in the information from me—my goofs, not any else’s. Later I may revisit this material and do everything in a nice, easy step-by-step way that will be more useful for novices.

Related, from the TeleBlog: FBReader: Ten easy tips for e-book users who want to switch to a Linux handheld. The installation tips won’t apply. But my hunch is that most of the other tips will. As for the XO, new owners might enjoy an IBM storage consultant’s first impressions and tips.

 
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