Would using LEGACY Sigil temporarily be detrimental to my epub files?

[graycyn]

My Dell XPS-8930 is very, very sick. It may or may not continue to work. Sometimes it boots, sometimes not, and I have to shut down via power button, wait a bit, turn back on and cross fingers. Even my Windows activation has disappeared.

I'd replace immediately, except, a similar style tower PC, one that can accommodate all my assorted peripherals like flatbed scanner, document scanner, pen display graphics tablet, printer, etc... is now WAY EXPENSIVE!

So, I'm thinking to limp along UNTIL BLACK FRIDAY SALES with my old, and somewhat shaky, Win 7 box. It fires up (fingers crossed this continues) and I've today put legacy Sigil 1.9.30 on it.

What I want to know, is would editing epub 3s in this older version of Sigil adversely affect my files in any way? I can't think why it should, but I'm no expert!

I realize I may have to do without some plugins. I figure I can ask about those on their individual threads at need.

Thanks for reading, and I hope the answer is that I can keep working.

[JSWolf]

Why not get a Mini-PC? They are smaller and less expensive then a tower type PC.

On Amazon.com, a Mini-PC with 32GB ram and 1TB SSD is less then $1000.

If you're a gamer on your PC, you can get GMKtec K16 Mini PC Gaming AMD Ryzen7 7735HS 32GB LPDDR5 6400MT/s, Dual NIC LAN 2.5GbE, Oculink,Triple Display HDMI 2.0+DP1.4+USB4, 1TB PCle 4.0 SSD, WiFi6E, BT5.2 for $640.

The Oculink port means you can add in an external graphics card.

https://www.amazon.com/GMKtec-K16-Ga...0GGB3KZL7?th=1

P.S. It comes with Windows 11 Pro

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by graycyn

What I want to know, is would editing epub 3s in this older version of Sigil adversely affect my files in any way? I can't think why it should, but I'm no expert!

Later versions have fixed some bugs and added new features, but editing epub3 books shouldn't be a problem.

Originally Posted by graycyn

I realize I may have to do without some plugins. I figure I can ask about those on their individual threads at need.

Most of my plugins should be backwards-compatible with Sigil 1.0.0. Other plugins will usually check the Sigil version number and will let you know if your Sigil version isn't supported.

As for your Dell PC, you might want to consider installing a user-friendly Linux distro, e.g. Linux Mint, on it. There are countless Youtube tutorials about this.
If you have enough free disk space on your PC, you might even be able to install Linux alongside Windows.
If you consider going this route, make sure to create backups of your most important files, if this is your main computer.

[JSWolf]

The problem with Linux could be drivers for the external hardware. It sounds like it's an issue with the computer and not the OS.

I had an old Dell desktop that was pretty slow. It eventually stopped working because the power button gave out. After that, I bought the Mini-PC before the prices went up. I also bought a laptop also before prices rose.

[KevinH]

Yes, Doitsu is exactly right. Each version of Sigil has its own bugs but any release with a serious enough bug which could harm an epub is immediately followed by a fast follow-on fix release and the offending binaries for the bad release are removed from github.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why not get a Mini-PC? They are smaller and less expensive then a tower type PC.

On Amazon.com, a Mini-PC with 32GB ram and 1TB SSD is less then $1000.

If you're a gamer on your PC, you can get GMKtec K16 Mini PC Gaming AMD Ryzen7 7735HS 32GB LPDDR5 6400MT/s, Dual NIC LAN 2.5GbE, Oculink,Triple Display HDMI 2.0+DP1.4+USB4, 1TB PCle 4.0 SSD, WiFi6E, BT5.2 for $640.

The Oculink port means you can add in an external graphics card.

https://www.amazon.com/GMKtec-K16-Ga...0GGB3KZL7?th=1

P.S. It comes with Windows 11 Pro

I'll definitely look into it, added it to my Amazon list, but first glance suggests not enough USB ports. And I'm guessing only one hard drive. I prefer two. One strictly OS, one strictly data. And, I'm hoping to be able to transfer my existing hard drive into a new machine, for a 3 drive setup like my Win 7 box has. Not strictly necessary, but useful for quick backups.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Later versions have fixed some bugs and added new features, but editing epub3 books shouldn't be a problem.


Most of my plugins should be backwards-compatible with Sigil 1.0.0. Other plugins will usually check the Sigil version number and will let you know if your Sigil version isn't supported.

As for your Dell PC, you might want to consider installing a user-friendly Linux distro, e.g. Linux Mint, on it. There are countless Youtube tutorials about this.
If you have enough free disk space on your PC, you might even be able to install Linux alongside Windows.
If you consider going this route, make sure to create backups of your most important files, if this is your main computer.

Great, thanks for the info about the plugins! I've added more to the mix since my Windows 7 days, there's nothing much on Sigil there other than epubCheck and I think, FlightCrew, possibly a couple others.

I didn't see any reason that editing epub in an old version of Sigil would hurt the files, but safer to ask first!

I don't know anything at all about Linux. It's probably better that I don't complicate things by trying to learn a whole new OS. Plus, there's all the old hardware. The printer is nothing, a cheapie from Amazon, but replacing the good Epson V330 flatbed with something of similar quality, um, not so easy. There is a driver that supposedly supports it on Windows 11, so that's hopeful, but still a bit of a question mark. And one reason I hung onto the shaky Win 7 box.

Don't worry about the backups. I keep multiples. I did forget to grab my Thunderbird profile and address book, and Brave Browser bookmarks (not many), but, having been lucky enough to get into the XPS this morning after FOUR tries, those are now safely retrieved.

[BetterRed]

I had the same problem with the press button power switch on the front of my Deli XPS 8920. When it didn't work I had to switch off/on at the power board socket, sometimes more than once.

Fixed by having the push button switch replaced by a toggle switch. It's reminiscent of a Dep switch on a PDP-8/11 :lol: Also replaced the power supply with one that has an on/off switch… all up cost about 10% of replacing the tower.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by graycyn

I'll definitely look into it, added it to my Amazon list, but first glance suggests not enough USB ports. And I'm guessing only one hard drive. I prefer two. One strictly OS, one strictly data. And, I'm hoping to be able to transfer my existing hard drive into a new machine, for a 3 drive setup like my Win 7 box has. Not strictly necessary, but useful for quick backups.

It may have room for two SSD drives. The thing is, you could get external USB ports. I have one so I have more USBC ports.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem with Linux could be drivers for the external hardware. It sounds like it's an issue with the computer and not the OS.

I had an old Dell desktop that was pretty slow. It eventually stopped working because the power button gave out. After that, I bought the Mini-PC before the prices went up. I also bought a laptop also before prices rose.

That mini PC you linked to is tempting. I suspect it would end up being a temporary solution for me, so I'm hesitant to spend. BUT, if the Win 7 box goes down, I might. At the least, it would give me more time to look around for deals. As is, I feel like working on ebooks will be limited severely. I can ... but there's no dark mode on my Windows 7, so my eyes won't take much.

Still, something's better than getting nothing at all done. I did get an HTML file of a 1930 book ready to go into Sigil, all on the Win 7 box. And temp backed up in Google Drive until I put it on my external USB and HDD backups, Dropbox, and Mega storage.


However, having brought up my scan of the dustjacket, OWWWWW! It appears greatly different on the spare older Dell monitor. Which is still a Dell Ultrasharp, but nothing near as good with color as my calibrated UD2518. Talk about oversaturated!

That means no color image work until I have a new machine. I suspected this would be a problem. Oh well, is what it is.

I'm practically chanting "I can hold out, I can hold out..." regarding Black Friday. And not entirely believing I can right now.

Off to see which plugins will still install in legacy Sigil....

[JSWolf]

Why not swap monitors and use the calibrated one on the Win 7 system?