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So will anyone run Microsoft Reader on a Mac–now that Boot Camp exists?
April 6, 2006 | 11:24 am
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By David Rothman
One of the worst horrors of the Tower of eBabel is the Windows-only nature of Microsoft Reader. Should your choice of operating systems help determine which e-books you can read?
But what if Macs could run Windows under an Apple-blessed program? The Tower would still be a horrifying sight, but at least life inside would be a little more tolerable. In fact, Apple has just announced Boot Camp, downloadable public beta software, which will run Windows on rebooted Macs. So, Mac folks, what do you think? Tell us (1) if Microsoft Reader and DRMed Reader books work out on your system and (2) what you think of the software.
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Comments:
You realize you are talking about _re-booting_ into Windows, in order to read a book, right? I don’t know about you, but I won’t be doing that. I have perfectly good eReader software running on every platform I own (including Macs, PCs, Palms, Pocket PCs, and my Symbian phone). [Sadly, yes I do own all of those.]
Amen. Here’s to the glory of a cross-platform approach! The existence of Boot Camp does not in the least diminish the need for a CPA for e-book readers. – David
Bear in mind that Microsoft LIT format has an easily available utility that will explore LIT files into their component XHTML source files. So yea, you will see some tech oriented Mac users doing this.
I did my WinXP install last night, but I’m too busy testing Visual Studio to worry about e-books
It’s also worth noting that eventually there’ll be hypervisor utilities available which will allow you to switch operating systems just like alt-tabbing between two applications (or so the theory goes). Most of the Intel Macs already have dual core processors that could support this sort of activity, so I don’t think it’s entirely beyond the pale that Mac users could use MS Reader under Windows.
Of course, for my own part, I agree with Richard’s suggestion of converting LIT files to more open formats
but regrettably there are still the legal issues with that.
An aside: We have a VIP in our midst. Dan is the guy who helped distribute the convert lit utility to crack Reader so people could make back-up copies or engage in other fair use. For legal reasons, he had to give it up. Please note that he does not condone piracy, nor do I. But there is another ethical issue–consumers paying for e-books but not enjoying full access to them. Meanwhile I’ll await with interest Richard’s experience with Reader.
“Please note that he does not condone piracy, nor do I.”
Shall I be the one that condones piracy then? Nah. But then I do not condone calling copyright infringement “piracy” either. Shame on you David!
I never know what’s worse, the pirates or the parrots.
Hey, Branko, I can appreciate that, er, borrowing a song online is different from boosting the CD at the store. No loss of anyone’s physical property and maybe even some promo. Still, I think the p-word is a good, vivid one. For a viewpoint of piracy that you’d enjoy, see this item from Andy Oram at O’Reilly. Thanks. David
You seem to be suggesting that “borrowing” would be my idea of the word we should use for “copyright infringement”. It is not, and I don’t know where you get that idea.