Kindle for PC via Wine

I really want to get the Kindle PC program running on my computer so I can download, read, and manage my e-books. I realize that Calibre can be used to manage e-books and I do have that downloaded. However, Amazon won't let me download ebooks unless my PC is registered in their Kindle program and I'd like to just keep things streamlined.

I've viewed many tutorials and advice for setting it up. I have Wine, I have Kindle for PC, I set it to Win98, all of that. However, when I try to open KindlePC from the Wine menu or from the desktop icon, nothing happens. No error messages, nothing. I don't know what might be wrong. How can I make it work?

Solution 1:

Ignore those old tutorials; the latest Wine beta works perfectly with Kindle for PC.

Try adding the development repository to your sources and upgrading to 1.3.7. In a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine1.3

Then download and run the latest version of Kindle for PC. (you don't need to set it to Windows 98 mode)

Solution 2:

You may, in addition, want to try out Calibre

Calibre is feature-packed e-book reader, manager & more with a swish Cover Flow-like browser and the ability to sync books with actual hardware devices, share your books online and even convert web feeds into perfectly formatted eBooks – all at the punch of a button.

Better yet Calibre cis able to display pretty much any eBook format you throw at it as well allow for quick conversion between formats – more than earth for even the nerdiest eBookworms to burrow in.

-- Joey Sneddon for omgubuntu

Solution 3:

While it doesn't help you with Kindle for PC, I believe you can use Kindle Cloud Reader on any computer with a web browser.

Solution 4:

If the intent is to manage the book on your Kindle, what about using a native application like Calibre rather than the Kindle Windows software? Calibre is in the Ubuntu repositories so you can install it via the software centre or using the command line:

sudo apt-get install calibre