Calibre does a pretty good job converting ePUB to mobi which can then be read on Kindle. There's also the KFX Output plugin for Calibre that converts ePUB to newer Amazon format supporting hyphenation and Enhanced Typesetting. I'm not sure it will work on Linux though, but there are other means to get hyphenation working listed in the description of the plugin. TBH, the lack of hyphenation is mostly a non-issue for English-language books anyway because English words tend to be short.

For DRM-protected books, there's a deDRM plugin for Calibre that removes the DRM protection (it's not included in the Calibre plugin database for obvious reasons, so you'll have to google for it, download it from GitHub, and install manually).

It's weird that one of Germany's biggest online book store should offer only one eBook format. I have to research this a little better.

As I suspected, they got a Kindle :mad:
So, does this mean I can give them eBooks only from Amazon, or such clearly marked as Kindle-compatible?
The bookshop I mentioned earlier clearly states that their ebooks are not compatible. Double mad!
This is horrible.
The person who bought the Kindle as a gift said: "we just bought a normal ebook reader! You know, a Kindle!"

Well, Kindle is not a bad choice at all. It's a very fine reader. Especially, if the person in question mostly gets their books from Amazon. I once bought a Kindle as a gift because it was more convenient for me to just send an ebook to the person's Send-to-Kindle e-mail address (after converting it to mobi) than make it available to them in any other way. But yes, all the ebooks I sent were DRM-free.

If you already have some ebooks in ePUB format, try to convert them via Calibre and see how it works. If you're concerned about ebooks bought from online German bookstores, well, the prices for ebooks currently start at 0.39 EUR @Hugendubel, at 0.00 EUR @Thalia, and at 0.99 EUR @Weltbild, so you probably can test-buy a couple of titles and see how well Calibre can convert them.

A word of caution though. I see many classics offered at Hugendubel for 0.46–0.49 EUR. Don't bother to buy them there. They're usually available at Amazon free of charge.

Thanks for the good info, shruggy.

I use Bolinda Borrowbox https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...hl=en_US&gl=US

Okay it's not an ereader as such but if you're a member of library (UK) then you can borrow ebooks and audiobooks (mp3 format)

And it's free!!

This thread is about which device to buy, foremost.

Amazon ebooks, or DRM-free .mobis sold by other stores.

I can only apologise for going off topic........

I cannot mark this thread SOLVED (and in retrospect shouldn't have posted in General I guess), but that's all as far as the OP is concerned.
Thanks again to everyone who chimed in.

Perhaps we need a few more classifications like
Wrong Topic
No Solution
Not Linux


and so on