Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Robin
Generating revenue is indeed the raison d'être for Netflix et al, but not for Calibre. The focus is on function, and that focus has been so successful that Calibre has become the reference standard for personal library management apps. Does everything have to be in pictures to avoid being "alienating and jarring"?
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I don't agree with that. The focus for both Netflix and calibre is on function. But, the function is barely related. Netflix is purely a viewer. It shows a list of things that someone else has decided on. There is really only one action that can be done with those things: look at it. The only other thing you can do with them is rate and maybe add to a list of favourites. Calibre is about managing a set of things and doing more than just looking at them. You can update the details, change the actual thing, change how you view the list of things, communicate with other devices, import and export those things and lots of other things. Exactly what any individual does depends on what they want to do.
The other difference is where it runs. Calibre is running on a multi-purpose computer with a full interface and a mouse and keyboard. Netflix, or at least how I use it, is running on a large screen, using an interface that is designed for distance and a TV remote control to select things.
Both of those things says they aren't comparable applications. Unless @viztastic is actually talking about using the server via a browser. That might make more sense.
And @viztastic mentioned Facebook, Amazon and Google as things that calibre should be compared to. I don't know why Facebook was mention. It just doesn't do the same sort of things. I'm tempted to say the same for Amazon, but, they have Kindles and related apps. When I use these, it they seem to have the same basics as calibre.
For Google, the apps I use are mail and drive in the browser. Both of these present a basic interface like calibre. There is a list of tags or a tree structure on the left, a list of items for whatever item was selected on the left and possibly another pane showing more details for whatever is selected in the list. Mail has a toolbar across the top.
There may be a problem of discoverability in calibre. There are lots of posts of "I didn't know calibre could do that". Or requests for enhancements that are answered with pointing out how to do it now. That I don't know how to fix and it probably isn't fixable as calibre can do so much. It is a problem that exists for any complex application. You just have to look at how few of the functions of Word and similar that most people use.