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KOReader

koreader.rocks

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Re: KOReader

#111

Post by bigfishrunning »

carlosjobim wrote: post #7

My wish is to see ebooks become first class citizens on all digital devices. Apple has a native ebook reader built in to their devices. It's cumbersome and bloated, but it's there. No web browser except Yandex has built in ebook support, even though it would be the easiest thing in the world. Android, Linux and Windows have no built-in ebook reader, as far as I know. Murasaki [1] is the most performant and sleek eboo…

To be fair, desktop linux doesn't really have built-in anything (except what's appropriate for a kernel, like filesystems and a TCP stack...). Many linux distributions package epub readers (calibre, okular, fbreader, bookworm), and they tend to be really easy to install.

Re: KOReader

#112

Post by tdeck »

hoherd wrote: post #86
gchamonlive wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the only proprietary software companies with any shot at longevity are Japanese companies. First Japan leads by far the ranking of oldest companies in the world ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies ). Then we have actual software like Zelda Breath of the Wild which is a technical marvel comparable to the original Rollercoaster Tycoon considering how well it runs on the severely limited arc…

This podcast about the history of zaibatsu, hardware, and software comes to mind. https://www.disruptingjapan.com/the-forgotten-mistake-that-k... > Software was not viewed so much as a product, but more like a service, similar to integration, training, and ongoing support and maintenance. It was usually sold on a time-and-materials basis, and sometimes it was just thrown in for free to sweeten the deal. The real mone…

This sounds like the way software was viewed through at least the 1960s in the US.

Re: KOReader

#114

Post by Salgat »

fumeux_fume wrote: post #54

Lots of nice features but the UX and UI are so painful that it's not worth jumping from the stock kobo reader for me. It's nice to have another option though and if the UX improves one day maybe I'll use it as my main reader.

I don't like the UX but the extra controls on ebook rendering was worth the pain for me, since almost all of my time is just reading the ebook anyways.

Re: KOReader

#115

Post by nonninz »

joshstrange wrote: post #89
kelvinjps10 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What extra features has over regular kindle software? I find kindle features enough but I want to know if I’m missing something

- Better and faster UI. I always thought the Kindle was just slow, nope, it's just really bad software - Customise any/everything. Font size, line spacing, paragraph spacing, margins, header/footer content, the list goes on - Ability to use things like BookOrbit (or alternatives) to manage your books and sync your progress/stats. - LLM-integration through plugins like KOAssistant, highlight a word/phrase/passage to g…

Thanks for the BookOrbit hint. Seems very interesting.

I see it supports audiobooks and ebooks. Do you know if there is any way for keeping sync between an audiobook and ebook?

Re: KOReader

#116

Post by II2II »

lordleft wrote: post #39
lolgab wrote: post #10

I installed it on my Amazon Kindle and I couldn't be happier. It shows once again that free software is superior to proprietary software. Free software grows slowly to make users happier and not to attract them with useless features to extract more value from them. Congratulations for this great piece of software.

I’m a heavy KOReader user and absolutely adore it, but I think it definitely trades user-friendliness for power and flexibility. The Kindle proprietary store has a far more user friendly UI imo, though it’s getting progressively worse (and the fact that kindles now default to showing you the store pisses me off to no end). KOReader plugins really close the gap though.

I don't know what the situation is like for Kindle, but there are atleast two open source alternatives for Kobo. KOReader is the Swiss Army knife, Plato is easier to use.

A few people are suggesting that KOReader is symptomatic if the issues with open source software. The reality is it targets a particular group of users.

Re: KOReader

#117

Post by dsr_ »

I use KOReader on everything except e-ink devices.

Linux desktop. MacOS laptop. Android tablets. Android phones.

Where-ever I am, I can pick up a device and continue reading from where I left off. I have the same config everywhere (it would be nice to be able to distribute that) for gestures and taps. I use the same font everywhere (TeX Gyre Pagella, which is a Palatino clone.)

Customization begets comfort.

Re: KOReader

#118

Post by joshstrange »

nonninz wrote: post #115
joshstrange wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Better and faster UI. I always thought the Kindle was just slow, nope, it's just really bad software - Customise any/everything. Font size, line spacing, paragraph spacing, margins, header/footer content, the list goes on - Ability to use things like BookOrbit (or alternatives) to manage your books and sync your progress/stats. - LLM-integration through plugins like KOAssistant, highlight a word/phrase/passage to g…

Thanks for the BookOrbit hint. Seems very interesting. I see it supports audiobooks and ebooks. Do you know if there is any way for keeping sync between an audiobook and ebook?

It does not have any sort of "whispersync" but, ironically?, I feel like whispersync could be recreated with things like Whisper and parsing the epub/whatever to line up progress. BookOrbit is in active development from what I can see (I'm not connected to the project, just a happy user) and it wouldn't surprise me if that was a feature in the future. It's something I've mulled over building for a while (even before Whisper).

For my Audiobooks I don't use BookOrbit because my setup is:

- Buy on Audible

- Rip DRM off

- Add to Plex

- Use Prologue (iOS only) to listen

And I freaking love that setup so I'm not looking to replace it currently.

Re: KOReader

#119

Post by CWuestefeld »

dml2135 wrote: post #92
nonninz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who thought the same (stock was enough for me) until I had some free time and switched, here are some things I'm really enjoying, in no particular order: - Format support: EPUB, CBR/CBZ (comics, graphic novels), PDF - Dark mode - Fully programmable gestures and shortcuts - Automatically syncs with my readeck instance (think readitlater/instapaper) to dowload the articles I save for example here on HN - Cal…

What's the point of Dark mode on an eink screen?

Because most of the page is dark, with light only coming from the text, the total light emitted is much less. That makes it less annoying to my wife, when I'm reading before going to sleep.

Re: KOReader

#120

Post by horsawlarway »

skydhash wrote: post #110
the_lucifer wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it definitely trades user-friendliness for power and flexibility A tale as old as time with OSS software from what I've seen. So far the only exception that I've seen of a FOSS piece of software with great UX is Blender[1]. With UX not being a first-class citizen on Linux, exposure to a solid universal tooling to create great UX also exacerbates things. I think the issue of bad UX and OSS are comorbid becau…

> So far the only exception that I've seen of a FOSS piece of software with great UX is Blender. Most OSS software favors power users instead of total beginners. And even Blender is not a great exercise in discoverability. You need training to use it. The stock software in Kobo and kindle can be used within minutes because they don't have a lot of features/options. And it's totally fine if that's what you need. Just…

I find this is mostly just a "mindset" difference.

OSS software aligns mentally with "tool". It only exists because someone had a problem to solve, and they wanted a tool to solve it. Generally, people should expect to have to learn how to use tools. Then they solve their problem and move on. It takes effort, and the result is mastery which gives you new capabilities.

Consumer software (and especially anything ad supported or social media adjacent, and sadly in many respects, lots of modern SaaS companies) want to be as glitzy and smooth as possible, but they don't actually want you to solve your problem. Instead they'd really prefer that you simply spend as much time looking at their software as possible. So the experience can be quite pleasant, it feels nice, things feel obvious, you get the dopamine hits quick and fast. But after a while you realize you aren't actually all that productive (or even productive at all) when engaging with them. Because the goal of this software isn't to help you solve your problem. The goal is to keep your attention and extract your money. If it happens to solve your problem... sometimes that's fine, sometimes that's actually counter to the primary mission of extracting your time and money.

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