Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (4570 mails)

[Randall R Schulz <rschulz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Kevan,

On Monday 21 November 2005 04:33, Kevanf1 wrote:
> ...
>
> I have no doubt that in the distant future books will all be in an
> electronic format :-(((((  However, I also believe that there will
> always be a substantial number of people who yearn for good old
> fashioned printed on paper :-)  Like me.  I have an extensive book
> collection here at home.  Quite a mixture of computing books, antural
> history and a lot of fishing books.  I also have a massive collection
> - for an average Joe Public - of fiction, crime, horror and sci-fi.
> Fiction is the one that I like to snuggle down in bed with and read
> before going to sleep and no electronic book is ever going to replace
> that feeling.  It will, of course, inevitably become a lost feeling.

I, too, love books and my apartment is not big enough to hold my 
library. Does that stop me from getting more? No way.

But I think it's likely we'll see digital paper that is entirely 
paper-like (thin, flexible, probably tougher than real paper) that can 
display text and imagery like a printed page but be electronically 
changeable as well as holding its image persistently even when no power 
is supplied. Such books would have all the characteristics of a book 
today plus allow moving images and sound and search. No doubt with such 
technology in hand, people would find new things to do with "books."

Would you object to having your library in electronic form and only as 
many "books" as you could actually use at once? Probably, and probably 
so would I, but that may not be true of future generations of book 
lovers. I do like to browse my library and pick up titles to peruse 
just to see what snippet of new knowledge I can pick up. Of course, 
when I can't find something I know is in some book somewhere in my 
library, I'm annoyed...


> Kevan Farmer


Randall Schulz