4 ms·
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 ther
by 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 agoCan 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 agoI 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).
- michaelmrose 3y agoYou actually didn't > Okay, I'll say it differently. Calibre's UI is bad > It has a bad UI, irrespective of trends. > Calibre has a hilariously bad UI, minus the hilarity > clearly been a lot of effort that has gone into trying to make it do things that are bad This is just you saying over and over that its bad. > The animation effect that makes thumbnails "pop" is but one obvious example. To be more precise by default in the pane wherein is displayed the details of the currently selected book when you change the selected book there is a fraction of a second it goes through an animated transition. A bad UI is one in which common tasks are unpleasant, confusing, or hard to accomplish. Not liking an animation appears to be an aesthetic judgement as is the notion that its interface is "dated". Can you explain what is actually bad about calibre precisely?
- cxr 3y agoThanks for making it clear that I would have wasted my time writing up a response had I been unfortunate enough to fall under the mistaken belief that you were asking in good faith.
- michaelmrose 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoPlease don't break the site guidelines like this. You've been around here long enough to know that this is exactly what we're trying to avoid. Tit for tat spats are among the most tedious kind of flamewar, and when you find yourself getting sucked into one, the only thing that works is to just stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- michaelmrose 3y agoOk
- cxr 3y agoRefer to the preceding comment. I gave an example.