Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New in Calibre 6.0

calibre-ebook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 225 posts

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#131

Post by mynameisvlad »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #98
frameset wrote: post #58

I pretty much have to use it for some things, but as sibling commenters have pointed out, there are some serious flaws with both it and its maintainer. I've mostly moved to using [Calibre Web]( https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web ) which is a software intended as a companion, but I use it almost exclusively. It has a web interface, and you can deploy it using a container. The killer feature for me that Calibre it…

Looks cool, but the wiki calls out that it can't sync reading progress between devices. Which, I understand--how Kobo does it is probably not well-documented. But without that, the solution doesn't seem any better than the Dropbox support with certain Kobo models. It would only be of interest to me if I could sync e.g. my Sage before putting it down and pick up my Clara somewhere else and be able to find my place in…

According to some posts (https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/qhdmt2/how_does_the_k...), the Kobo will sync reading process with other Kobos for kepubs only.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#132

Post by bheadmaster »

Torifyme12 wrote: post #64
paskozdilar wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Oh come on, that was one incident and he did fix the main issue. For a dude who does this in his spare time, he deserves a lot of credit.

I'm not talking about the security incident. Anyone can have bad days, I am not the one to hold the grudge.

What I've experienced is that Kovid is consistently hostile to anyone who disagrees with him in the slightest. There is no attempt to shine light on the argument or defuse the situation whatsoever - it always ends with comments like "what do you want from me? you get this project for free! if you don't like it nobody is forcing you to use it! get off my lawn!!!".

Of course, the guy has the right to talk to anyone any way he wants.

But I also have the right to publicly call him out on that.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#134

Post by frameset »

dmos62 wrote: post #87
frameset wrote: post #58

I pretty much have to use it for some things, but as sibling commenters have pointed out, there are some serious flaws with both it and its maintainer. I've mostly moved to using [Calibre Web]( https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web ) which is a software intended as a companion, but I use it almost exclusively. It has a web interface, and you can deploy it using a container. The killer feature for me that Calibre it…

> I pretty much have to use it for some things, but as sibling commenters have pointed out, there are some serious flaws with both it and its maintainer Your sibling comments have not mentioned or alluded to any such flaws. Do you have criticism to share?

Other commenters have pointed out that the lack of a self replacing auto-updater in a modern desktop app is striking to put it mildly. It has a pretty bad UI, that seems to be getting worse especially with regard to the shades of grey. If you bring up these flaws the maintainer can react quite poorly, even when the subject is broached politely and in good faith.

And to add my complaints to those of other commenters, hosting the library on another computer or network share is not supported, and you can't use an external DB provider e.g. MySQL.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#136

Post by mynameisvlad »

akho wrote: post #89
selfhoster11 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only if you make them. Have been pretty simple for me. I don’t do most of the things you mention, and do not see myself wanting to. That's not how it works. Each device and firmware has its own way of doing things. For example, I would have no idea how to build "ebook groups" on my reader, but I don't have to worry about that because Calibre knows how to do it for me. Creating those by hand would likely involve a t…

> > Only if you make them. Have been pretty simple for me. I don’t do most of the things you mention, and do not see myself wanting to. > That's not how it works. Each device and firmware has its own way of doing things. For example, I would have no idea how to build "ebook groups" on my reader That would be you making it complicated. What are you all doing with your Kindles that needs multiple levels of organization…

> That would be you making it complicated. What are you all doing with your Kindles that needs multiple levels of organization?

A Kindle Keyboard 2 is completely different than a Kindle Oasis 3. The file format they use is different (they've changed formats a few times in the last 13 years,) the software is old enough on the Keyboard 2 that it's fundamentally quite different, etc.

This doesn't even preclude other e-reader companies existing which further complicates the setup. What if your old Kindle dies and suddenly none of your scripts work anymore because the new Kindle is just subtly different in how it works? What if you suddenly hate the Kindle ecosystem and want to switch to Kobo?

>Keep track of what?

Having more than one e-reader? This is not an uncommon case, honestly.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#137

Post by slightwinder »

james-redwood wrote: post #101

This comment is from the perspective of a Calibre power-user, and someone who has been involved with the software for years now. I must admit, I'm slightly shocked at some of the comments here. Kovid puts in an extraordinary amount of work (nearly 80 hours a week) into Calibre - of which most is for free, in the name of open source software. Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time on the mobileread forums will a…

> Kovid puts in an extraordinary amount of work

Extraordinary amount of work does not guarantee extraordinary quality or results, not even ordinary quality.

> Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time on the mobileread forums will also know him as a remarkably intelligent, dedicated, and all-round fantastic guy.

Reads like a working para social addiction. Anyway, whatever qualities one has, doesn't matter. One can be nice, and still fail at important things. Those things actually happen all the time and somehow people are always surprised and defending.

> The proof of the pudding is Calibre itself, which is a joy to use.

Opinions are very divided on this part. And as someone who had several hard problems over the decade, including multiple data loses, I'm very far from calling it a joy. It's useful, and if you know your way around the flaws it will also not a harsh experience, but a joy it was never for me.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#138

Post by jasonlotito »

bheadmaster wrote: post #130
tomcam wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How on earth is overly sensitive a problem for anyone? Assuming for the sake of argument he is.

It is very difficult to communicate with Kovid when you're not a user and you've not previously praised his genius. Any kind of criticism or suggestion that isn't wrapped up in the "but your project is awesome and you're awesome!!!" wrapping-paper is met with hostility, insults and banning. It is a problem for anyone trying to communicate with him.

Criticism or suggestion seems fine. Insulting is not. The one example I saw were someone was effectively making your claim was someone insulting him and him responding without any hostility, insults, or banning.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#139

Post by NoSorryCannot »

berkes wrote: post #52
addicted wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. And a file manager doesn’t track which books of mine are synced and which are not. Calibre does. A file manager does not make it easy for me to correct the ebook’s metadata so it appears properly on the ebook reader. Calibre does. Calibre will also automatically download metadata for you from a variety of sources (with many options for the lev…

So "it's job is not well defined". It's a webserver, file manager, sync client, transcoder/converter, RSS reader, metadata manager all in one. With all possible regards and respect to the author, I find calibre a terrible mess. It does a lot of things, none of which very well. And the one thing that I want it to do, it doesn't. Not reliable or not at all. I want it to give me access to the ebooks I buy online. This i…

The alternative reality where all of those functions are handled by independent pieces of software, or even worse by software not specialized in ebooks at all, is not necessarily better.

In fact I'd bet money it it would be less useful and less productive and much more forbidding to users.

Re: New in Calibre 6.0

#140

Post by ok123456 »

Chris2048 wrote: post #128
tomcam wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that supposed to be some kind of an offense?

Quoted post unavailable.

Calling him childish just for not wanting to deal with name drama (bikesheding) is simply projection.

Just locking the thread and telling people no is the right answer.

Post reply on HN