is there a guide for how to use an ereader in linux?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

@rcentros, I think you're missing a point about HarryT's answer and your question. HarryT says that Qt5 is installed with calibre 2.X and that's true. But you were asking about installing Qt5 in Windows over an older installation, so adding to it out of calbre environment. Those are two totally different situations.

Indeed, if you get calibre 2.0, you can install Qt5 over Windows XP, but you could find problems (in the same way you could find problems in LInux if you install a new package over an older distro), and as it looked like the problems were common, the installation was restricted inside calibre.

That's the way Linux works. You can have different versions of the same development libraries, so long as you keep them separate directories and point to the right directory when you use them (which, apparently, Calibre handles for you). I'm not sure what libraries I download when I do a Calibre install (it's automatic). I always just download and install the newest version -- directly from Calibre --- over my older version. I've yet to have a problem.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, this is self-evident, because, as stated innumerable times, QT5 isn't supported under XP . I don't understand why you're labouring this obvious point.

Because this is the main point @rcentros was trying to clarigy: forget Qt5 because it's easy to install in Windows, so you can install it in an old computer as he can do in Linux over an older distro.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's the way Linux works. You can have different versions of the same development libraries, so long as you keep them separate directories and point to the right directory when you use them (which, apparently, Calibre handles for you). I'm not sure what libraries I download when I do a Calibre install (it's automatic). I always just download and install the newest version -- directly from Calibre --- over my older version. I've yet to have a problem.

I know, but it's not usually the way Windows works. I suppose you can do it, but it's not evident, I think.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, this is self-evident, because, as stated innumerable times, QT5 isn't supported under XP . I don't understand why you're labouring this obvious fact. QT5 is easy to install on environments in which it is supported.

I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that Qt5 wasn't supported in XP. I doubt that Calibre even existed the last time I used XP.

At any rate, I think the original questions have been answered in this thread ... long ago. I'll try to bow out of this thread now. Sorry for droning on about this.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that Qt5 wasn't supported in XP. I doubt that Calibre even existed the last time I used XP.

At any rate, I think the original questions have been answered in this thread ... long ago. I'll try to bow out of this thread now. Sorry for droning on about this.

That question... and a lot My comments were mainly to clarify that, nothing else.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I know, but it's not usually the way Windows works. I suppose you can do it, but it's not evident, I think.

It's definitely not the way Windows used to work. But my Windows experience is very limited with Vista and Windows 7 -- and non-existent with Windows 8.x -- so, since Gregg appears to be able to use Calibre and Sigil in Xubuntu, there's really not much more reason to keep this thread going that I can see. Sorry for yammering on and on about all this.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

It's definitely not the way Windows used to work. But my Windows experience is very limited with Vista and Windows 7 -- and non-existent with Windows 8.x -- so, since Gregg appears to be able to use Calibre and Sigil in Xubuntu, there's really not much more reason to keep this thread going that I can see. Sorry for yammering on and on about all this.

Why sorry? I agree with you about not being necessary more "help" , and.. if it works, you don't need to mess with it

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that Qt5 wasn't supported in XP. I doubt that Calibre even existed the last time I used XP.

Yep. XP users have to stick with Calibre 1.48, which was the last version that used QT4, which does support XP. I don't know why the QT5 developers made the decision not to support XP. Perhaps the framework itself uses a compiler which doesn't support XP. A fair number of modern compilers don't.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by rcentros

KDE was my first choice -- then I moved to Gnome when KDE had their first "big" change. But I've heard good things about the newest versions of KDE, it's actually much "lighter" than Gnome. By now though, I've been using Gnome 2 (Mate) for so long I'm pretty much invested in it. I used to like to experiment quite a bit -- but now I'm at the age where I just want to use my computer.

And Xubuntu is based on Xfce. I liked Xfce but -- at least on Vector Linux -- it was more work to keep updated and configure than was Mate. Vector Linux was also Slackware based so didn't have the Ubuntu repositories and I got to the point where I just wanted something simple -- basically click and point.

I think you're right. KDE does seem to be getting lighter and faster. Not as light and fast as xfce, of course, but very good for such a fully-featured DE. I did a little experiment to compare the two. This is on the same machine, different installations of the same OS, one using xfce and the other KDE. On a fresh boot, before doing anything else (other than the usual things I have starting at boot. Come to think of it, one of those things is ktorrent, a KDE app, so I guess the xfce number should be even lower.-) xfce is using 146MB RAM, KDE 252MB.

It's interesting that you find KDE lighter than Gnome. Back in the day I always felt that Gnome was the lighter one.

I think the problems you had maintaining xfce on Vector probably had more to do with Slack than with xfce. Probably dead easy with Ubuntu.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, precisely. Because QT5 doesn't officially support Windows XP, as I said in my last message. It may work on some XP installations, but it doesn't work on a lot of them. A lot of development environments no longer support XP.

That's not it. What the issue is really us that a lot of XP installs are installed on computers that are just too old to run Qt5. The processors don't have what's needed to run Qt5. So instead of having a support nightmare, Kovid decided to end support for XP with Calibre 2.x.

That's not to say that all XP installs cannot run Qt5, but too many of then cannot and that's the problem. If you have a system capable of running Windows 8.1, then you have a system capable of running Qt5.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That's not it. What the issue is really us that a lot of XP installs are installed on computers that are just too old to run Qt5. The processors don't have what's needed to run Qt5. So instead of having a support nightmare, Kovid decided to end support for XP with Calibre 2.x.

That's not to say that all XP installs cannot run Qt5, but too many of then cannot and that's the problem. If you have a system capable of running Windows 8.1, then you have a system capable of running Qt5.

That is incorrect. The problem with QT5 applications targeted at WinXP is the compilers fault. There is ways around it, but for a while there wasn't (e.g. Microsofts genius idea to drop WinXP as target in VS2012 - which was reintruduced in a later update). Once Kovid decided to end support for XP, he did it with a generic (from calibre download page):

calibre 2.x uses Qt 5 which is known to be incompatible with Windows XP machines. If you are using Windows XP please, use calibre 1.48, which works with all Windows XP machines, from here. Simply un-install calibre 2.x and install 1.48, doing so will not affect your books/settings.

There is no reason for him to reintroduce support for a version of Windows that itself is not supported by Microsoft any more. Even if he could work out how to correctly deploy calibre with working QT5, why should he worry about an unsupported OS?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

That is incorrect. The problem with QT5 applications targeted at WinXP is the compilers fault. There is ways around it, but for a while there wasn't (e.g. Microsofts genius idea to drop WinXP as target in VS2012 - which was reintruduced in a later update). Once Kovid decided to end support for XP, he did it with a generic (from calibre download page):

Sorry, I am not incorrect. It is correct that the issue is the processor in a lot of XP systems.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sorry, I am not incorrect. It is correct that the issue is the processor in a lot of XP systems.

Any source you could link that supports that? If you have problems with a library using unsupported hardware it is the compilers fault that it assumed that the piece of hardware (e.g. sse2 support in cpu) is available when it isn't.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by gbm

You should have stayed at 14.04LTS

Hey bernie. Why? I like getting the new versions.

Originally Posted by gbm

With your computer xfce, lxde or mate are the desktops that will work with no problems.

I always wondered about that. Thanks. (I wrote it down and taped it to the computer.)

Originally Posted by gbm

P.S. Did you ever get a guide for installing ereader software?

LOL No, but this whole thing has been much more fun.

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Good choice to stick with xfce. It's a good compromise between ease of use and resource requirements.

Let us know when you're in the market for a new computer. I'm already looking forward to the flame war.-)

Been thinking about this one. http://www.staples.com/Dell-Optiplex...product_110072 But somebody's gotta convince me fast because the sale is over on the the third. (Flame away!)

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Here is my suggestion for what you should have in a new computer. What computer you get is up to you.

I suggest you get at least a 1TB hard drive, 8gigs of ram, 2gigs of video ram with whatever video card you get, and at least a quad core processor be it AMD or Intel.

If you buy a system that comes with Windows 8.1 and still want to run Linux, setup dual-boot.

What about this one? http://www.staples.com/Dell-Optiplex...product_110072 I'm not sure I'll get it as things are working good as it is, but it seems like a hell of a deal.

Originally Posted by rcentros

Xubuntu 14.10 comes default with Qt5. So, if that's the requirement to run whatever the newest version of Sigil is -- 0.8.2? -- then Gregg is "golden."

Yeah, yeah. And being from Illinois I'd say I'm "f"ing golden. (Inside joke people from Illinois will get.)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Any source you could link that supports that? If you have problems with a library using unsupported hardware it is the compilers fault that it assumed that the piece of hardware (e.g. sse2 support in cpu) is available when it isn't.

Those running XP with an obsolete process can run Calibre from source and compile Qt5 without the need for a more advanced processor or they can upgrade the hardware and the OS so all that needs to be done is just to install the latest Calibre. It's their choice.

Windows 7 was released July 22, 2009. That's almost 5.5 years. For those who are now complaining that they cannot afford to upgrade the hardware or get a new computer, 5.5 years is long enough to have saved up to get better hardware. I don't feel for anyone on obsolete hardware running XP. When Windows 7 came out, Microsoft sold it for 1/2 price. So really, given the length of time since the release of Windows 7, I don't see why most people could not have upgraded by now.

Even just putting away $10 a month would be enough to buy a system capable of running Qt5. I've seen the bear bones system bundles sold by Newegg for like $300-$400. Then there would be enough left over to upgrade the OS.

Sure, it might not be easy to come up with the money now. But if they had been saving since July 2009, that would not be a problem now.