An interesting trend has been appearing in the publishing world as of late, one I'm sure you're well aware of. What trend is that? Well, it's the slow death of print media, and the rise of it's digital replacement. AKA, the web. If you're a green fanatic, this ought to thrill you to no end because, as more and more newspapers die out or go digital with digital distribution only, less wood is needed, and thus more trees are saved.But there's more to this than just our growing desire to save our ever dwindling natural resources. We, as a people, are becoming a mobile society, taking everything with us on the go, or preferring to have our favorite media (books, music, movies, etc) off the PC and onto our little portable players and devices so that we're no longer glued to a couch, or our desk, or any one location.We want to watch/read/enjoy our media wherever we are, regardless of time or location. But in the past, to do something like that, we had to carry a ridiculously bulky collection of tapes, cd's, dvd's, books, and more with us from place to place.So where does Linux and Ebooks come into all this? Well, I'm getting to that. With the explosion of the digital revolution, and the rise of Ebooks, thanks in part to great Ebook readers such as Amazon's (Linux powered) Kindle Ebook reader, we're able to go green, and pack a huge collection of reading material with us in one handy little package.No more bulky books, no more stacks of materials, and no more newspapers. Why? Because they will all soon find their way onto Ebook readers. Yes, your daily newspaper will be both online, and in digital print format. Gone will be the old news stands. Gone will be the thick morning newspaper you read regularly. Only your Ebook reader will remain.Now some of you most likely still enjoy your morning paper along with your coffee and donuts. That's fine. But you may quickly find in the not too distant future, the only way you'll be able to get your morning paper, is via your Ebook reader.Sure, you look at this idea and laugh. But wasn't that what our ancestors did when the printing press first came about? Or how about 8 tracks? They'd never get replaced, right? What about CD's? Or DVD's? Uh-huh. Yeah. They either got replaced, or are on their way out. Progress happens, times change, things change, and print media is not immune to these changes.Ebooks are currently becoming huge, and publishing companies love them. It's cheaper for them to produce, and there's less risk involved, as they don't have to worry about not having enough of a popular book printed, or heaven forbid, having too many if it flops. There's also the great advantage of producing timely news.Books, newspapers, magazines, or any other form of print media suffer from a natural time lag between the event written about, and the time in which it is available to the readers. Most magazines that I know of have a three to four month lag time from deadline to newsstand. Some have gotten it down as far as two weeks. But that's still two weeks. A lot can happen in that time.Newspapers have it slightly better, being able to get today's news out by tomorrow. But in today's fast paced, information now society, even that is too long. Years ago when news traveled slowly, it wasn't a problem if news took several months to reach you. That was the norm and to be expected. Newspapers changed that somewhat by offering "next day news", or in some instances, same day new if a breaking story was worthy enough to warrant the printing of an "extra" edition.But that's not possible anymore. Newspapers, magazines, and any other print media out there is going to seriously have to consider distributing their publications via Ebook format in the near future. Which is where Linux will help them greatly.With Linux powering the most popular and best Ebook readers, it's not much of a stretch to see that Linux will be right there at the right time and in the right way to help print media into the 21st century. And their eventual switch to Ebook format, read by thousands via Linux powered Ebook readers, will be the one thing that will save the flagging print media industry.Linux can also help these publications in the server department, on desktops, PDA's, mobile devices, cameras, and a wide range of other things. It'll be everywhere, helping them to adapt to this new market and make the move into the 21st century of technology.With all these wonderful Linux powered devices standing by to help them, it's now up to the companies to do the right thing and make the switch. But when and if they do it is another matter entirely. Then again, if they don't, they'll only have themselves to blame for their failure.EDIT: A reader commented to me by email and felt that it was curious that I would support Ebooks since they are riddled with DRM. So to clarify that, I wanted to point out that there are Ebook formats that support DRM, and those that don't. I only support the formats that *DO NOT* have DRM. Sorry I didn't clarify that before, but I do not support DRM'ed Ebooks. Only the formats that are DRM free.EDIT2: Just as a side note, here's a list of 13 ebook sites that use DRM free Ebook formats. So it clearly demonstrates the wide variety of drm free ebook formats available, and that there is a lot of content available under these formats.
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