4 ms·

Calibre developed by Kovid Goyal it's a one stop shop for eBook management. His reply to the issue "Python 2 is retiring in thirty months. Calibre needs to co

by 2rsf 4y ago

Calibre developed by Kovid Goyal it's a one stop shop for eBook management. His reply to the issue "Python 2 is retiring in thirty months. Calibre needs to convert to Python 3." was "No, it doesn't. I am perfectly capable of maintaining python 2 myself. Far less work than migrating the entire calibre codebase. status wontfix" [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1714107 https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1714107

mcluck 4y ago
TIL that my favorite terminal[1] was written by the author of Calibre. [1]: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/
kkirsche 4y ago
You had me until the anecdote. I understand the sentiment and intent of what’s being said, but as a security professional it just paints themselves, their applications, and their user base as targets. Knowing it’s a won’t fix means it’s also easier to sell exploits if not disclosing as it’s clear he doesn’t intend to upgrade to a maintained and supported version of Python, so it should work for longer than most exploits.
- 2rsf 4y ago
  On a second look I see that they did moved to Python 3 with Calibre 5 on Sep 2020
- stevekemp 4y ago
  Calibre has a bad history with security already - for example https://lwn.net/Articles/464824/ https://lwn.net/Articles/464824/
- Gigachad 4y ago
  If you use the program its plainly obvious this kind of opinion is well spread through it. Of course I deeply respect anyone who puts their work out for free as FOSS but the tool is not a shining example of good software.
xigoi 4y ago
His name must have been really unfortunate at the start of the pandemic…
kellogs_aran 4y ago
+1 for Calibre. It is such a wonder of software to me. I respected his reasoning though as another commenter has observed [1], it seemed inevitable that they would have to migrate at some point. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33517830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33517830

by 2rsf 4y ago

mcluck 4y ago

TIL that my favorite terminal[1] was written by the author of Calibre. [1]: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

kkirsche 4y ago

You had me until the anecdote. I understand the sentiment and intent of what’s being said, but as a security professional it just paints themselves, their applications, and their user base as targets. Knowing it’s a won’t fix means it’s also easier to sell exploits if not disclosing as it’s clear he doesn’t intend to upgrade to a maintained and supported version of Python, so it should work for longer than most exploits.

2rsf 4y ago
On a second look I see that they did moved to Python 3 with Calibre 5 on Sep 2020
stevekemp 4y ago
Calibre has a bad history with security already - for example https://lwn.net/Articles/464824/ https://lwn.net/Articles/464824/
Gigachad 4y ago
If you use the program its plainly obvious this kind of opinion is well spread through it. Of course I deeply respect anyone who puts their work out for free as FOSS but the tool is not a shining example of good software.

xigoi 4y ago

His name must have been really unfortunate at the start of the pandemic…

kellogs_aran 4y ago

+1 for Calibre. It is such a wonder of software to me. I respected his reasoning though as another commenter has observed [1], it seemed inevitable that they would have to migrate at some point. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33517830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33517830