Kobo Desktop no longer available for Windows XP

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by murg

Windows XP is not a modern Windows distribution.

I understand. That's why XP, apparently, has issues with Qt5. Although, a quick search at the Qt Project page seems to indicate that Qt 5.3 will compile for Windows XP simply by adding the "-target XP" parameter.

http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/42576/

I'm not a programmer -- I just ran into this while searching for Qt5 on Windows XP.

None of this applies to modern LINUX distributions, however.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by murg

Depending on your use, 3 GB is almost nothing...

The way I look at it, run a 64-bit Windows on a system with at least 8GB of ram.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The way I look at it, run a 64-bit Windows on a system with at least 8GB of ram.

If you're getting a newer system, then by all means do so. There is nothing wrong with Windows (even 8.x), and the choice of Windows vs. Linux is largely a matter of needs and preferences.

If you're using an older system, the options are much more limited. You may be limited to Linux or XP. While it is fine to say that people should upgrade, it is not a trivial decision for some people. Money is money, and people have priorities on how to spend it. Time is also time, and you can pretty much expect to devote a day to upgrading your OS by the time you install your software and transfer your data. Of course, there is also a learning curve involved whenever you upgrade.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The way I look at it, run a 64-bit Windows on a system with at least 8GB of ram.

The way I look at it, run whatever flipping OS you want on whatever flipping hardware you want, so long as the programs you want run well on it.

8GB RAM is a completely random criteria, for instance, would you bring out the pitchforks for 4 GB?
And what if your computer runs just fine on 2GB... mine does, all my programs run quite snappily. Then again, that computer is not burdened by running an OS made by Microsoft.

I will run a 64-bit OS if my hardware supports 64-bit, because there is no point artificially restricting myself, but honestly, it's not all that big a deal. 32-bit OSes did not STOP working just because 64-bit now exists, any more than WinXP stopped working just because Vista/7 came out. (I recognize this is a difficult concept for you to fathom. )

[JSWolf]

We have already seen where Calibre has a problem with 4GB of ram. So I'm suggesting 8GB because that is actually a good amount. If the motherboard has only two slots for RAM, then two 4GB memory sticks would do well.

Plus, I've never read of Calibre having an issue on a 64-bit system with 8GB RAM.

[PeterT]

I'm not at all sure it's EVER been said that calibre had an issue with 4 GB of RAM.

What has been shown is that 32 bit calibre has a problem due to an architectural limitation of 2 GB of MEMORY available to a Windows program. And this memory can be REAL or VIRTUAL.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We have already seen where Calibre has a problem with 4GB of ram.

On Windows, perhaps (I don't know). I haven't had any trouble with Calibre using 2GBs of RAM on Linux.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Then again, that computer is not burdened by running an OS made by Microsoft.

The choice of OS makes a huge difference.

[eschwartz]

Please stop spreading FUD about calibre having problems with 4GB RAM, or even 2GB RAM.

calibre runs quite fine on my 2GB RAM system, this is while running a heavy desktop and having over 60 pages open in Firefox.

It has been brought up many times that calibre will have problems converting certain badly-formatted books that require a ton of extra work due to running out of memory, the solution to which is adding more memory, which generally means running 64-bit calibre which can utilize more memory (for the simple reason that most of the time, the person with trouble will already be running calibre on a computer that has at least 2GB memory, because, well, most people are...)
And I am sure there are books which require shockingly extravagant quantities of RAM that would blow all our minds... But I haven't personally heard of them. They would have to have really terrifying markup and size problems...

Seriously, stop being racist against 32-bit programs. That is the only explanation for these wild claims that calibre has mythical fundamental problems with memory.

For a lot of basic calibre use, it does not even TRY to use more than 200-400 megabytes!!!

[murg]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We have already seen where Calibre has a problem with 4GB of ram. So I'm suggesting 8GB because that is actually a good amount. If the motherboard has only two slots for RAM, then two 4GB memory sticks would do well.

Plus, I've never read of Calibre having an issue on a 64-bit system with 8GB RAM.

Then you can read about it here.

I had a book that got stuck at 66% on a conversion from mobi to epub, on Windows 7 and 8 gb. It was a big book, true, but Calibre still stalled, sucking up all of memory.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by murg

Then you can read about it here.

I had a book that got stuck at 66% on a conversion from mobi to epub, on Windows 7 and 8 gb. It was a big book, true, but Calibre still stalled, sucking up all of memory.

Did you leave it running for 24 hours?

[murg]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Did you leave it running for 24 hours?

I think about 8 hours. Then gave up.

If it stays stuck at any percentage for more than an hour, something has gone wrong.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by murg

I think about 8 hours. Then gave up.

If it stays stuck at any percentage for more than an hour, something has gone wrong.

Yes, with the book. Large books with overly complex markup have a track record in calibre lore. The longest conversion on record was I believe 24 hours or so, but give it time (overnight) and they will usually complete -- even such a book cannot keep calibre down for long.

The 66% mark means calibre is in the middle of processing the extracted markup, the percentage steps are more or less for show.
calibre did not stall, it was simply in the middle of a very long job.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by murg

I think about 8 hours. Then gave up.

If it stays stuck at any percentage for more than an hour, something has gone wrong.

The only time I've had books "stick" was with odd cover art. Removed the cover art and the book compiled quickly. I don't know enough about Calibre to understand why it did that, just know it did.

By "odd" cover art, I mean cover art that, for some reason, stopped the book from converting in a timely manner. I have no idea why it was "odd." "Odd" (here) is opposed to "normal" cover art. By "normal" I just mean the book converted in the "normal" amount of time, i.e., it didn't take very long.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Yes, with the book. Large books with overly complex markup have a track record in calibre lore. The longest conversion on record was I believe 24 hours or so, but give it time (overnight) and they will usually complete -- even such a book cannot keep calibre down for long.

The 66% mark means calibre is in the middle of processing the extracted markup, the percentage steps are more or less for show.
calibre did not stall, it was simply in the middle of a very long job.

I didn't realize that. Next time I try one with "odd" cover art, I'll just let it go overnight. Thanks.

Again, "odd" is not really a definition. It just means that, when I removed the cover art, the book converted quickly.