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> But it's got such market and mindshare for open source e-reader software that there hasn't been much room for other folks to try something different. This co

> But it's got such market and mindshare for open source e-reader software that there hasn't been much room for other folks to try something different. This contains the misunderstanding that merely by existing calibre "uses up" something like oxygen. This is true in a commercial product when there are a finite number of buyers whose money in turn funds a finite number of merchants efforts to bring a product to market. In open source software users are finite but on average worthless except insofar as they constitute a funnel whereby some microscopic portion may in some instances become contributors but more often than not that funnel is virtually non-existent with contributions coming from the same small cadre of developers. > The UI feels very dated to me Perhaps the worst reason to make a different piece of software. Modern usually is synonymous with an oversimplified interface which shoves much functionality into a junk drawer and makes it easy to do some subset of easy things and hard to do anything else. Although quite usable out of the box the calibre UI is also very customizable and trivial to figure out how to customize - You can add or remove functions to right click menu or tool bars - tool bars by default has both icons AND text and you can change the icons if you want something that looks more "modern" - The default layout has a toolbar, search bar, list of books, info about the selected book, and a tag/author/series etc browser toolbar. - If you were wondering how to change the layout there is a button on the bottom right that says "layout" alongside a colorful icon. If you click it you can choose a pretty cover grid view and hide both the book info and tag browser. Congrats it now looks "modern" - not only can you set single character shortcuts because they only operate when the cursor isn't in a text field but the preferences menu for shortcuts makes it easy to search for a function by name in order to bind and the shortcut so chosen is shown by the function. - It has a search that is both powerful and works exactly how you would think it works For having a huge pile of functionality it is probably one of the most usable pieces of software I use regularly. It works in a fashion that suggests the author uses it and has thought a lot about what would make it easier to use. I'm also a little lost at what slow means here as on Linux it like virtually every desktop app that isn't based on electron it responds instantly and briskly. Perhaps it works poorly on Mac?

cxr 3y ago
I'll bite. > This contains the misunderstanding that merely by existing calibre "uses up" something like oxygen. This is true in a commercial product when there are a finite number of buyers whose money in turn funds a finite number of merchants efforts to bring a product to market[...] You don't say it explicitly, but there's an implied "this is not true with open source software". I don't agree. I wrote about this a few years ago: <https://www.colbyrussell.com/2019/02/15/what-happened-in-january.html#unacknowledged-un- https://www.colbyrussell.com/2019/02/15/what-happened-in-jan...> If people think of a problem as solved or in the process of being worked on by competent minds, they're less likely to pledge their own minds to solving the problem. > > The UI feels very dated to me > Perhaps the worst reason to make a different piece of software. Okay, I'll say it differently. Calibre's UI is bad. Forget "dated"—I don't think it even qualifies for the use of that word. Firefox 3's UI is dated. Calibre's UI is just bad. It has a bad UI, irrespective of trends. When I first downloaded Calibre years ago after having heard people rave about it for a while, I thought there must be some sort of mistake, or a joke even. Calibre has a hilariously bad UI, minus the hilarity. And it wouldn't be quite so crazy if it weren't the case that there's clearly been a lot of effort that has gone into trying to make it do things that are bad. The animation effect that makes thumbnails "pop" is but one obvious example. If Calibre were "Zotero, but specifically for ebooks", it wouldn't be on the receiving end of this kind of criticism.
- michaelmrose 3y ago
  Can you give examples of ways in which the UI is bad? and should be better implemented? Also you can disable the little animation if you don't like it the preference is "disable animations" under look and feel.
  - cxr 3y ago
    I just did. Let's start with acknowledging that. If you want more, then how about asking that way. Otherwise, one gets the impression that you're not really asking because you're uncertain but rather because it is easy to do so with very little effort (and just as easy to respond to whatever other examples you get with a declaration that none of them are actually any sort of problem).

cxr 3y ago

I'll bite. > This contains the misunderstanding that merely by existing calibre "uses up" something like oxygen. This is true in a commercial product when there are a finite number of buyers whose money in turn funds a finite number of merchants efforts to bring a product to market[...] You don't say it explicitly, but there's an implied "this is not true with open source software". I don't agree. I wrote about this a few years ago: <https://www.colbyrussell.com/2019/02/15/what-happened-in-january.html#unacknowledged-un- https://www.colbyrussell.com/2019/02/15/what-happened-in-jan...> If people think of a problem as solved or in the process of being worked on by competent minds, they're less likely to pledge their own minds to solving the problem. > > The UI feels very dated to me > Perhaps the worst reason to make a different piece of software. Okay, I'll say it differently. Calibre's UI is bad. Forget "dated"—I don't think it even qualifies for the use of that word. Firefox 3's UI is dated. Calibre's UI is just bad. It has a bad UI, irrespective of trends. When I first downloaded Calibre years ago after having heard people rave about it for a while, I thought there must be some sort of mistake, or a joke even. Calibre has a hilariously bad UI, minus the hilarity. And it wouldn't be quite so crazy if it weren't the case that there's clearly been a lot of effort that has gone into trying to make it do things that are bad. The animation effect that makes thumbnails "pop" is but one obvious example. If Calibre were "Zotero, but specifically for ebooks", it wouldn't be on the receiving end of this kind of criticism.

michaelmrose 3y ago
Can you give examples of ways in which the UI is bad? and should be better implemented? Also you can disable the little animation if you don't like it the preference is "disable animations" under look and feel.
- cxr 3y ago
  I just did. Let's start with acknowledging that. If you want more, then how about asking that way. Otherwise, one gets the impression that you're not really asking because you're uncertain but rather because it is easy to do so with very little effort (and just as easy to respond to whatever other examples you get with a declaration that none of them are actually any sort of problem).