Re:How Amazon Crushes Unions
by ropeladder on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @11:42AM
(#26478313)
De-DRM for Kobo works great. It's basically the same as Kindle, there is just another plugin or two to install. Books are usually a bit more expensive. However, it looks like Walmart actually owns Rakuten now, so it's not like you're helping out the little guy much.
Re:How Amazon Crushes Unions
by wombat-man on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @11:26AM
(#26478028)
Best buy also has a pretty good pickup experience near me. I can order it online and walk over and have it in my hand a couple hours later.
Re:How Amazon Crushes Unions
by stonecraftwolf on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @12:59PM
(#26479496)
What do you use to strip the DRM from kindle books?
I use DeDRM. Works as a plugin for Calibre. I import the books into Calibre and the DRM is stripped away automatically. Mostly painless.
Physical books I buy from a small online bookstore I want to support. Oddly enough, they're not much slower than Prime. Even for books not in stock. Plus, they frequently write a nice note, or slip a free zine or custom bookmark into the package. It's a nice touch, and whoever did the packing has equity in the company. They're worker-owned.
Ebooks are still Amazon, though I strip the DRM immediately after purchase so I'm not locked into the Kindle ecosystem. I may try buying a test book from Kobo or Barnes & Noble to see if I can just as easily strip the DRM from them. If so, then I'll probably switch.
Ebay's been good for some stuff. For Pi hobby stuff, I've started buying directly from the various small businesses that specialize. The shipping is longer, but that's not a problem so far.
Some stuff I do buy from Walmart / Sams. They're about as bad as Amazon in many ways, but they do pay their warehouse people a decent wage. Or they did last time I checked. So it's at least marginally better in that respect, and there's not much worry about fake goods from them.