Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
One of the things I love about calibre and using search on both calibre and my eInk devices is not having to waste time maintaining a complex directory structure to allow easily finding books. Hmmm... want to locate all books with Al Robertson as a co-author? Easy-peasy with search. Using a directory structure? A massive PITA.
|
I don't feel it's as bad as that... At least not for the example you stated. I'd be sure to include "Al Robertson" as part of the book's file name, so that it would pop up instantly in a simple Dropbox search, regardless of the folder in which the book might be stored.
Plus, because I mirror Dropbox on my Windows computers, searches can also be performed using my preferred Windows file manager, Total Commander. (It can look
inside EPUB files if so instructed.)
It all comes down to what @Sirtel mentioned:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
yeah, it takes a lot of time to get the metadata right in the first place.
|
Ultimately I decided it was no longer worth the bother for me. (Keeping everything neatly organized in a
local copy of Calibre.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
As for using calibre with Dropbox, if you are very careful to only use one computer at a time to access your library and are very, very lucky, you may be able to use Dropbox to store your library.
|
That's part of the trouble. I routinely run several Windows machines simultaneously (such as the desktop computer along with the notebook), and it might happen for me to inadvertently open Calibre on both machines at the same time... This can wreak havoc with Calibre's database, given that Dropbox will attempt to keep it in sync across devices at all times. I think I ran into such trouble a couple of times years ago, and that was another thing that demotivated me from continued use of Calibre.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
For me, local storage for libraries and a one way sync to my various backups works just fine.
|
Good for you, and to each their own, but I can't help thinking that the
reverse way of setting it up is more in tune with the 21st century.
That is, it appears more logical nowadays for the central storage to be located in the
cloud, and for local storages to only access those parts of the cloud that are needed at the moment on a particular device.
(Of course, another
full copy of the library may also be stored/mirrored elsewhere, so that the primary cloud copy is not the
only full copy of the library, in case of a catastrophe befalling the cloud provider. That's why I'm asking @skillachie to make it possible for us to keep backups of our library – or at least of selected BookFusion shelves – in Dropbox or Drive
alongside the in-house cloud storage provided by BookFusion.)
The reverse way – for
main storage to be
local, and trying to keep it in sync with all devices using a cloud/syncing service (let alone manual wifi/Bluetooth connections) strikes me as a "20th century way of doing things".
In other words, what I think we really need in 2022 is
Calibre in the Cloud. (As an
option: those users who distrust cloud services and who prefer to run Calibre locally might continue doing so, of course.) I would welcome a Calibre Cloud service enthusiastically! Then I might perhaps sacrifice all those hours needed to fix all the metadata in my e-books.
But hey, here comes
BookFusion!
In the app stores, it's being advertised not only as an ebook
reader, but also as an "ebook
organizer and manager with cloud sync". So, perhaps BookFusion's cloud service can become that "Calibre Cloud for the 21st century", if Kovid Goyal has no plans to turn Calibre into a
cloud-based service optionally.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Faterson
|
I eventually chose a different route: I've noticed very positive reviews for the latest cheap
Onyx Boox Poke 4 Lite e-ink reader, so that's what I've just purchased, and it should be delivered to me later this week.
It was only €157, so not too much expense for (largely) testing purposes. At the same time, the quality should be solid, according to reviews. The device runs Android 11, so I'm really looking forward to running Moon+ Reader Pro, BookFusion and KOReader on it. I'll be able to provide direct feedback to @skillachie as to how BookFusion behaves on such a 6-inch e-ink screen.
My thanks to @skillachie (for mentioning that BookFusion
is, in fact, available on e-ink devices running Android) and especially to @Sirtel, without whose ravings about e-ink readers in this thread
it would certainly not occur to me to purchase another e-ink reader at this point.
But
standard, contemporary, full-fledged and open Android on an
e-ink reader – that's really a new twist I haven't seen or tried before, so it will be interesting to try and employ it in action, despite the
slow annotation capabilities.
The non-availability of
multi-color highlights (well, at least not
visibly so) on a black-and-white screen will pose a major obstacle for me, but perhaps I can find a way to get around it. (Maybe a "red" and a "blue" highlight – those two colors are the ones I use most frequently, and each of them has a set purpose – do look sufficiently different even on a grey-scale screen, so that the continued use of them will be possible even on a non-color e-ink device?)
As to colored e-ink devices, I took a closer look at user reviews for
PocketBook 741 InkPad Color I mentioned earlier, and while most owners of it seem if not happy, then at least OK with it, quite a few owners (on Amazon and elsewhere) are complaining about it, claiming "colored e-ink is not ready for serious play yet", and advising anyone wishing to enjoy color on e-ink devices to wait another 2 or 3 years so that the technology can further mature.
That kind of user feedback certainly disincentives me from potential purchase, as does the fact that it's a
Linux device, instead of Android.
On the other hand, I took a look at the instructions for
installing KOReader on PocketBook, and they seem pretty straightforward, so while it's true PocketBooks run on Linux, it seems to be a very
open flavor of Linux.
So, perhaps it might not be all that difficult after all for @skillachie and his team to prepare a BookFusion installation package for PocketBook. Maybe they can accomplish it even without asking PocketBook for permission. If they succeed in doing so, I'll be happy to test BookFusion on my
PocketBook InkPad 3. It's really a great device, as far as e-ink readers go, although I've found quite a few user complaints about it online, too. Not as many as about the
color version of the device, but it appears it tends to break down under
intensive use for some users. Perhaps because I've only been using it occasionally over the last 4 years, it's been operating flawlessly for me. Alas, there are all those e-ink limitations, especially regarding annotations.
Anyway, PocketBook's newest pride, only introduced this summer, is the
PocketBook Era, and I'd definitely be interested in giving it a try, especially if @skillachie and his team make it possible to run BookFusion on non-Android PocketBooks as well!