The easiest way to read on a Linux computer is to use the Online Reader. As far as we know the only compatible browsers that have Linux versions are Firefox and Chrome. Simply install one of these browsers (if not installed already) and you can begin reading straight away.
If you wish to download your ebook, if it is DRM-free then you can simply download the ebook file and open it in any Linux ebook reading software.
If the ebook does have DRM applied (the majority of our ebooks have DRM) unfortunately the solution is slightly more complicated. We do not know of any Linux based ebook reader software that is compatible with Adobe DRM (Adobe Digital Editions does not have a Linux version). So the solution is to use Wine to run the Windows version of Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). If you have a 64 bit Linux system you must install Wine32 because there is currently no 64 bit ADE installer.
A customer has kindly provided these detailed instructions (they used Wine stable i386 and Adobe Digital Editions 3.0):
- Install stable Wine.
Instructions are available here: https://wiki.winehq.org/Download - Install a new Wine prefix and set the Windows version to XP.
From the command line, run:
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine32" WINEARCH=win32 winecfg
This command may take a while. After it has created the Wine prefix, it will come up with a window that says "Wine Configuration." Click the "Applications" tab and at the very bottom, set it to "Windows XP" and hit OK. - Install Winetricks.
Instructions are available here: https://wiki.winehq.org/Winetricks (in particular, note the "Installing winetricks" section)
Note if you have an older version of Winetricks installed already you may want to uninstall it first using:
sudo apt-get purge winetricks - Install a few things with Winetricks.
This may take quite a while, you will periodically have to hit "OK" while it does its magic. Run: WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks corefonts dotnet35sp1 - Download Adobe Digital Editions (ADE).
Adobe Digital Editions 3.0. works well (later versions require dotnet40 which seems to get caught in infinite loops)
As of writing, this can still be downloaded direct from Adobe here:
https://www.adobe.com/support/digitaleditions/downloads.html - Install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE).
Assuming you installed it to your downloads folder, the correct command would be:
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine32" WINEARCH=win32 wine Downloads/ADE_3.0_Installer.exe
This should add shortcuts to your desktop and menu that will allow you to open the reader. - Test.
Test books can be downloaded from here:
https://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook/digital-editions/sample-ebook-library.html
Look for one that is an acsm download link.
There are some know bugs to bear in mind when using ADE:
Occasionally, clicking the menu causes the reader to go black. This can quickly be remedied by switching to another desktop then switching back, thus forcing it to redraw. In Lubuntu, the shortcuts for this are ctrl-shift-right, and ctrl-shift-left.
For fullscreen to work, you need to hit F11 after selecting fullscreen from the menu. (or ctrl-shift-f followed by F11)
If you want to transfer your ebook from your computer to an ebook reader device this should also be possible, but there is an issue with Wine recognizing USB connections, so this may cause your ebook reader device to not show up under the list of devices in ADE. The solution to this issue can be found here.
Unfortunately because Adobe Digital Editions is not officially released for Linux the support for this solution is limited. But if you do have any issues please check the Help Centre articles for all Windows based Adobe Digital Editions issues as they should be the same. However if you do come across an issue caused by Wine please contact our support team and we will do our best to help. Please be sure to mention you are using Linux and explain the nature of the issue you are having in full.
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