sinequo wrote:
...But if I wanted to distribute an ibook for free limited distribution ( private and secure) - which wouldn't require DRM - is there a way that those people without a Mac or iPad would still be able to view it - and without losing interactivity/ animations? Maybe via .pdf?
If you produce your book with iBooks Author, its .ibooks format can only be read on an iPad or a Mac running OS 10.9, no other platform. If you export such a book to PDF format, you can see for yourself exactly what happens to it. PDF can be read and looks the same on every platform.
If you produce your book with some other app in .epub format, like Pages or InDesign or Sigil, it can be read the same way on every platform.