Quote:
Originally Posted by kyteflyer
There is a need to be careful of the term "open source" which is usually about being able to base your work on its. I suspect what you're looking for is no digital rights management as you have already mentioned. But, a lack of DRM, or a free book, does not imply in any way that its open source. Likewise readers and management tools. Calibre is free, but its not open source. I doubt that any of the ebooks are open source... free, yes. Open source, no.
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Where do you get that nonsense from?
calibre is not just free, it is open source as well.
It is published under the GPL version 3.
The large button on the main menu at http:/calibre-ebook.com (the one that says "get involved") helpfully points you at the source code:
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre and the development instructions:
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/develop.html
Checking the commit shortlog, calibre has 149 all-time contributors.
calibre proudly supports linux (on the download page), which often (but not always) means open-source...
...but the linux download sub-page gives instructions for performing a source install. Most distros bundle it themselves. Neither of that would be possible if the source code were not published.
It may be worth it to point out that a significant factor behind calibre's popularity is
because it is open source. To name but one example, plugboards are a
hugely popular feature that was developed by @chaley.