3 ms·

Wait, why does a book reader ever need to "mount" anything? I don't understand.

netule 6y ago
I'm guessing because it has extensive support for connecting and communicating to eBook readers like Kindle and the likes.
- enriquto 6y ago
  What a time to be alive. I remember installing calibre once, because I needed to open an .epub file I had. Upon opening it, it started to "classify" stuff and build a sort of catalog, to which I kill -9'd it immediately and uninstalled it for good measure. But mounting filesystems is way, way worse than anything I imagined it was about to do!
  - powersnail 6y ago
    While the filesystem issue showed stubbornness, the fact that it tried to build a catalog is perfectly reasonable, given it is an ebook management software, which happens to include an epub reader. You really can't blame a program to do what it says to do.
    - enriquto 6y ago
      I don't blame the program, I blame myself for installing a management software when all I wanted was an ebook viewer (and definitely NOT a management software of any kind).
      - antientropic 6y ago
        FYI: Calibre contains a program appropriately named "ebook-viewer" that allows you to view a file (like an epub) without all the library management stuff.
- toyg 6y ago
  Yes, precisely. It’s actually very useful, since it can rearrange files on kindles etc.
bayindirh 6y ago
Calibre is much more than an eBook reader. It's more of an authoring / reading / management suite. It can manage eBook readers' libraries either natively or via plugins. It can work with my Kobo eReader for example. I use Calibre to convert standard epubs to kepub (kobo enhanced epub) and push to device and extract highlights from books mainly. It's also a very nice ebook library so I can search and push/read/modify what I want.
slightwinder 6y ago
Because it's not a book-reader, but a suit of tools for ebooks. Which includes managing them, receiving data from certain source, reading them, converting beetween different formats, automating certain managment-tasks, offering a web-interface as also desktop-interface, and finally also managing synchronisation with many many ebook-readers (for which the mounting is neccessary). And it BTW has a very elaborated plugin-system which allows to add even more that what it can do out of the box. It's more justified to call it an IDE for Ebooks.

I'm guessing because it has extensive support for connecting and communicating to eBook readers like Kindle and the likes.

enriquto 6y ago
What a time to be alive. I remember installing calibre once, because I needed to open an .epub file I had. Upon opening it, it started to "classify" stuff and build a sort of catalog, to which I kill -9'd it immediately and uninstalled it for good measure. But mounting filesystems is way, way worse than anything I imagined it was about to do!
- powersnail 6y ago
  While the filesystem issue showed stubbornness, the fact that it tried to build a catalog is perfectly reasonable, given it is an ebook management software, which happens to include an epub reader. You really can't blame a program to do what it says to do.
  - enriquto 6y ago
    I don't blame the program, I blame myself for installing a management software when all I wanted was an ebook viewer (and definitely NOT a management software of any kind).
    - antientropic 6y ago
      FYI: Calibre contains a program appropriately named "ebook-viewer" that allows you to view a file (like an epub) without all the library management stuff.
toyg 6y ago
Yes, precisely. It’s actually very useful, since it can rearrange files on kindles etc.

bayindirh 6y ago

Calibre is much more than an eBook reader. It's more of an authoring / reading / management suite. It can manage eBook readers' libraries either natively or via plugins. It can work with my Kobo eReader for example. I use Calibre to convert standard epubs to kepub (kobo enhanced epub) and push to device and extract highlights from books mainly. It's also a very nice ebook library so I can search and push/read/modify what I want.

slightwinder 6y ago

Because it's not a book-reader, but a suit of tools for ebooks. Which includes managing them, receiving data from certain source, reading them, converting beetween different formats, automating certain managment-tasks, offering a web-interface as also desktop-interface, and finally also managing synchronisation with many many ebook-readers (for which the mounting is neccessary). And it BTW has a very elaborated plugin-system which allows to add even more that what it can do out of the box. It's more justified to call it an IDE for Ebooks.