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Has anybody looked into this? I've not seen any topics on the forums about this new software.
German Article on Lesen.net
Google Translate (Not perfect, but quite readable.)
Quote:
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The highly popular ebook management software Calibre has a new competitor. BookONO promises a more open approach than Calibre and scores already in the alpha version with additional features such as a built-in browser, but is still recognizable in its infancy.
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A more open approach than being open source, running on about every existing platform in the world and having a plugin-structure to extend functionality? Hard to imagine.
The author himself posted in the thread (real English):
Quote:
I am one of the authors of the software. Sorry to not reply in German, I believe it's German. Yes the software does handle at least 5,000 items without a problem. The software will always be 100% free (the desktop part of it), but it's probably not going to be open source, though I may change my mind in the future.
Where Calibre uses Python, this uses C + +. The toolkit for both is the same and it's called QT. The Calibre software calls on the backend to do things like convert books, HOWEVER we might write some C + + code later on to do some of that better. The main reason for writing it is personal. We want an integrated solution that works both on the desktop, web, and mobile and functions the way we want it to function and Calibre does not do that and it does not seem to me that it will ever do that. Currently I am writing the desktop component and the web components. When those are done I will write the mobile component.
Thanks for all of your interest.
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- Not open source. Big disadvantage.
- Using C++ instead of Python, which (probably) would make it faster, but development much slower.
- It actually uses Calibre as its backend. How's that for kicks? Using the core of the software you want to replace as the business part of your own so you can actually get stuff done. If you want to replace Calibre, then replace it, not use it to drive your own product. At this point in time, this software only seems to be a new front-end / user-interface for Calibre.
- He wants to "rewrite parts of Calibre in C++", such as conversion, to do it "better" [than Calibre].
I for one, am very sceptical that any e-book manager started today can ever catch up to Calibre, let alone overtake it, assuming Calibre stays in development.
True, Calibre is not a pretty program to look at, but that is probably its only disadvantage. For everything else, at this point in time, Calibre is to e-books what Photoshop is to image editing: if you need the options, the kitchen AND the sink to get stuff done, it's the only option.