I’ve just upgraded to Ubuntu 13.04 and decided to try and get the Kindle app working. It was surprisingly easy, here’s what I did.
First, there is no Ubuntu version of the Kindle app. I find that a bit odd, since Amazon is heavily integrated into Ubuntu. So we have to install the PC version. Yes, the PC version is what I said.
That means we need Wine installed. Now, if you are running Ubuntu 12.04 and up (including 13.04) you need version 1.5. I went with the stable version (1.4), but the installation process corrected my mistake automatically.
To run the installation, you need to use the Terminal app:
Preparing for Kindle
We need to add Wine to our apt repositories. If that sounds slightly weird, fear not, it just means that we are telling Ubuntu to look in an extra place for software updates.
If that still sounds like I’m speaking another language, have a read of this it’ll help.
You can read more about what Wine does for us, visit the web site. The short explanation is, Wine let’s us run Windows programs inside Linux.
So, let’s add the repository. In Terminal run this command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
You’ll see a whole bunch of stuff go rolling by, and that’s fine. When it finishes, you need to do:
sudo apt-get update
Finally, you can install Wine:
sudo apt-get install wine 1.5.29
This will take a little while, and you’ll see another myriad of stuff go whizzing by.
Get the Kindle App
You can download the Kindle app from Amazon now. You can get it here. Yes, I know it says it’s for Windows. That’s the point though isn’t it?
Install Kindle
You’ll now have a Windows executable in your Downloads folder:
Now do what you would do normally to install Windows software – double-click the executable and follow the prompts.
You’ll end up with a Kindle short-cut on your desktop. And you’ll be able to search for the app too:
Now you can read your books using your Ubuntu 13.04 installation.
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