Calibre app size?

[gingerbeardman]

Hi

As a long time user I've watched the size of the app steadily increase over the years, I upgraded to the most recent version today and it's a 300MB download and 750Mb (798MB) install on macOS.

I inspected the app to see that the majority of the size are frameworks and libraries and I had to stop and wonder: what is it all for and is this really the best way to structure it? I'm a software developer so I understand about frameworks and libraries and other dependencies, but I also understand about optimising their use, static vs dynamic linking, and other techniques and best practices to reduce file size. QtWebEngineCore.framework alone constitutes half of the size of the app.

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, version 3.10.0 from 2017 was 75MB download and 200MB install on macOS. So in 5 or so years the app has increased in file size by a factor of more than 4x.

Interested to hear any thoughts on this.

Thanks!
matt

[ownedbycats]

On the other hand, storage is getting pretty cheaper, and installing on an SSD negates the speed issue (unless you install Calibre on the SSD and have the library on spinning rust like me).

On Windows, 6.15.1 installed is around 412 mb. Some 30% taken up by QtWebEngineCore.dll.

[gingerbeardman]

That size difference on Windows and some reading made me realise the reason for the increased size on macOS: it includes both Intel and ARM architectures.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-so-big-in-qt6

So, it seems that it might make sense to generate separate Intel and ARM builds of Calibre for macOS just like what is already done with the Linux builds?

https://download.calibre-ebook.com/6.15.1/

This would roughly halve the size of the app on macOS.

[theducks]

Wow, talk about an 'Apple Tax'
Get a PC

Windows DL used to be ~80M. It has doubled (and so has the features) to ~155M (install ~400M)

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by gingerbeardman

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, version 3.10.0 from 2017 was 75MB download and 200MB install on macOS. So in 5 or so years the app has increased in file size by a factor of more than 4x.

The huge size of the app means slower downloads, slower launches, slower quitting and of course the increased storage space required. In terms of file size it is in the top 1% of apps on my computer.

My 2002 laptop was used till November 2012. It has a 120G byte HDD.
The 2016 replacement has 512G HDD
Then since I don't much go out I replaced that for everyday work with a S/H Optiplex 7050 with 512G SSD and added UPS, 4T HDD and a 60cm 4K screen.
This year I got a new Lenovo laptop for only €360 with 256G SSD, but I added a hardly used 1T HDD to it. €10 for the internal cable.

About 5000 eBooks is an export backup of 23.5 GByte.

About 0.5G for the install isn't a big deal. Even my 256G SSD (no programs on the HDD) is less than 12% used. I've a big selection of CAD, document, image/vector etc editing and others.
Only two Steam Games. One is 40G Byte.

Linux Mint with Mate desktop, and three VMs on Laptop:
1) Image of entire OS, programs and data of XP Laptop (Edit: 14 years worth plus earlier data since 1998 and all programs & data re-installed from Jan 2000 NT 4.0 Laptop).
2) Image of entire OS, programs (inc Office 2007) of 2016 Windows 7. That laptop now has only Linux.
3) Image of enitire OS of briefly used Windows 10 tower PC, now wiped and a Linux server in the attic.

So I don't see the size of Calibre as an issue.

[gingerbeardman]

Good for you, as a Linux user you can already download a version of the app optimised for your architecture (Intel/ARM). I'd like to see those options for the Mac app.

The point is not about the platform (Mac), or the disk size (cheap and plentiful), but about optimising distribution to save time (limited) and electricity (costly) on this planet.

Feature request: https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/2017347