Three Open Source E-book Readers Worth a Look

If you're heading to the beach this summer, you might want to take along something good to read. Dead tree books are so last century and e-book readers are all the rage. While Kindles are cool, they're not the only game in town for reading the latest best seller. Try these open source options for mobile devices and netbooks instead.

FBReader - A free reader for Windows, Linux, and Linux-based mobile devices. It supports several formats, including plucker, ePub, and the non-DRM version of Mobipocket. It displays embedded images, supports hyperlinks and footnotes, remembers the last-read positions for multiple books, and more.

Calibre - The grandaddy of open source ebook readers, this cross-platform reader includes format conversion and library management tools, and an integrated ebook viewer. It also converts news feeds into ebooks and syncs easily with e-reader devices, including the iPhone.

Flipbook - This is a beta version of a new ebook reader released by The Internet Archive that reads scanned books stored on Archive.org. It supports books written in right-to-left-languages and can even be embedded in blog posts or digital asset repository pages.