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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. C

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 level of automation, including individual review with diffs from the existing metadata). Calibre also makes it trivial for me to create a web server so I can access my books from any device from anywhere. Calibre will also track which books I’ve read and which ones I haven’t. Which a file manager won’t. Calibre also makes it possible for me to read the books on my computer itself before I sync them to my device. Calibre will also automatically convert my book to a different format depending on the device I’m syncing to, something a file manager won’t do either.

akho 4y ago
> Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. 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. I do use Calibre for conversion (through the command-line ebook-convert tool, wrapped in a script that converts and mails to Kindle in one operation). I don’t use different devices, to “automatically” does not mean much.
- selfhoster11 4y ago
  > 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 third party tool or XML/other structured text format editing, which would be annoying. > I don’t use different devices That's your setup. Another person may have three readers, for whatever reason. How would you keep track of it then, and would it not be easier to just hand over things to Calibre for automatic synchronisation?
  - akho 4y ago
    > > 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? > How would you keep track of it then Keep track of what?
    - mynameisvlad 4y ago
      > 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.
      - akho 4y ago
        Formats are a different point from “ebook groups”. To answer your question — I’ll modify the line that calls the conversion program (which is, at the moment, Calibre’s ebook-convert). As you can imagine, I’ve already had to do that a few times over the last 15 years. It took me less time than the “add to library” dances would have. I still don’t understand “keeping track”. So you have several readers, there are books on them, you read the books. Calibre does not sync notes or reading position anyway (and certainly not wirelessly), as far as I know.
        mynameisvlad 4y ago
        > Formats are a different point from “ebook groups”. The point is that even in the same line of readers, there are subtle differences. Replace "formats" with "ebook groups" if it somehow makes it easier for you to understand that different readers have different ways to do things. > I still don’t understand “keeping track”. So you have several readers, there are books on them, you read the books. Calibre does not sync notes or reading position anyway (and certainly not wirelessly), as far as I know. Uh, yes it does: http://www.mobileread.mobi/forums/showthread.php?t=296205 http://www.mobileread.mobi/forums/showthread.php?t=296205 And if you have thousands of books and multiple devices, keeping track of what's on each device and which format is best for the device gets messy. It's not a hard concept to grasp.
berkes 4y ago
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 isn't calibres' fault, but the industries'. DRM, incompatible formats pushed by tech giants. But in the end, all I want is a way to see, reference and sync the books that are on my Kobo with my (Linux) desktop. A python script, A proprietary Kobo app over wine, some bash scripts and a well kept directory achieves this. But calibre doesn't. Though it can read RSS feeds.
- Torifyme12 4y ago
  You go write your scripts, maintain them, etc since you feel that's a superior option We'll keep using Calibre
  - berkes 4y ago
    Why the snarky tone? I expect better from a debate on HN.
    - RScholar 4y ago
      Just because you were civil in your expression of it doesn't mean that your opinion itself isn't in poor taste to communicate, especially for someone involved in open source. You may be indifferent to criticism which exists only as a means of self-expression, but when silence costs nothing it's difficult to see exactly how your thought couching your criticism of the e-book ecosystem as a distaste for this long running, free and fairly popular piece of software was going to advance the conversation. There's a term in Portuguese for a crying baby that's held to a breast but who continues to cry, without even trying to suckle; it's what came to mind when I read your original comment. It's not used for flattery, I'm afraid...
- wokwokwok 4y ago
  > I want it to give me access to the ebooks I buy online. > This isn't calibres' fault The software doesn’t do everything. …but you really only want it do something else, that’s not possible. So it’s bad. This is a very difficult position to defend: There is software, free, maintained as a labour of love, that others like. …but it doesn’t do the one thing you want. So it’s categorically bad and a mess. That’s the sort of entitlement that makes open source developers quit. :(
robin_reala 4y ago
Calibre does a lot of course, but for your first point, Kobo exposes a folder when connected via USB, and you can drag plain epubs over which it will then load into its library with no additional software.
- yencabulator 4y ago
  As does a Kindle, except you need .mobi files.

akho 4y ago

> Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. 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. I do use Calibre for conversion (through the command-line ebook-convert tool, wrapped in a script that converts and mails to Kindle in one operation). I don’t use different devices, to “automatically” does not mean much.

selfhoster11 4y ago
> 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 third party tool or XML/other structured text format editing, which would be annoying. > I don’t use different devices That's your setup. Another person may have three readers, for whatever reason. How would you keep track of it then, and would it not be easier to just hand over things to Calibre for automatic synchronisation?
- akho 4y ago
  > > 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? > How would you keep track of it then Keep track of what?
  - mynameisvlad 4y ago
    > 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.
    - akho 4y ago
      Formats are a different point from “ebook groups”. To answer your question — I’ll modify the line that calls the conversion program (which is, at the moment, Calibre’s ebook-convert). As you can imagine, I’ve already had to do that a few times over the last 15 years. It took me less time than the “add to library” dances would have. I still don’t understand “keeping track”. So you have several readers, there are books on them, you read the books. Calibre does not sync notes or reading position anyway (and certainly not wirelessly), as far as I know.
      - mynameisvlad 4y ago
        > Formats are a different point from “ebook groups”. The point is that even in the same line of readers, there are subtle differences. Replace "formats" with "ebook groups" if it somehow makes it easier for you to understand that different readers have different ways to do things. > I still don’t understand “keeping track”. So you have several readers, there are books on them, you read the books. Calibre does not sync notes or reading position anyway (and certainly not wirelessly), as far as I know. Uh, yes it does: http://www.mobileread.mobi/forums/showthread.php?t=296205 http://www.mobileread.mobi/forums/showthread.php?t=296205 And if you have thousands of books and multiple devices, keeping track of what's on each device and which format is best for the device gets messy. It's not a hard concept to grasp.

berkes 4y ago

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 isn't calibres' fault, but the industries'. DRM, incompatible formats pushed by tech giants. But in the end, all I want is a way to see, reference and sync the books that are on my Kobo with my (Linux) desktop. A python script, A proprietary Kobo app over wine, some bash scripts and a well kept directory achieves this. But calibre doesn't. Though it can read RSS feeds.

Torifyme12 4y ago
You go write your scripts, maintain them, etc since you feel that's a superior option We'll keep using Calibre
- berkes 4y ago
  Why the snarky tone? I expect better from a debate on HN.
  - RScholar 4y ago
    Just because you were civil in your expression of it doesn't mean that your opinion itself isn't in poor taste to communicate, especially for someone involved in open source. You may be indifferent to criticism which exists only as a means of self-expression, but when silence costs nothing it's difficult to see exactly how your thought couching your criticism of the e-book ecosystem as a distaste for this long running, free and fairly popular piece of software was going to advance the conversation. There's a term in Portuguese for a crying baby that's held to a breast but who continues to cry, without even trying to suckle; it's what came to mind when I read your original comment. It's not used for flattery, I'm afraid...
wokwokwok 4y ago
> I want it to give me access to the ebooks I buy online. > This isn't calibres' fault The software doesn’t do everything. …but you really only want it do something else, that’s not possible. So it’s bad. This is a very difficult position to defend: There is software, free, maintained as a labour of love, that others like. …but it doesn’t do the one thing you want. So it’s categorically bad and a mess. That’s the sort of entitlement that makes open source developers quit. :(

robin_reala 4y ago

Calibre does a lot of course, but for your first point, Kobo exposes a folder when connected via USB, and you can drag plain epubs over which it will then load into its library with no additional software.

yencabulator 4y ago
As does a Kindle, except you need .mobi files.