A thought to improve Calibre.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by meeera

Yes, not having access to brand new features is a risk you take when your hardware is over a decade old. It's not unique to any particular company. My old TV doesn't have all the newest smart TV features either.

With Windows, at least, there are pretty cheap new laptops available running the latest Windows 10. And you can buy a very low-priced used Win 10 laptop. AFAIK there are no cheap options for Macbooks, are there?

[stumped]

i see these - don't buy a new PC, buy this - annoying adverts which seem to be linux on a usb stick - pretty cheap, if they work ?
or maybe they are just a scam like the magic fixes for slow wifi or those " wonderful" ariels that ( falsely) claim to get you hundreds of HD TV channels for free.

lenovo or similar mini PCs with Win 10 and decent specs are under £100 on ebay ( PC only - you supply monitor, Kb...

[Quoth]

Buy empty USB stick and download. Then nothing wasted if the Live Linux doesn't run. That can then be used for install. I've also used an SD Card and a USB SD Card reader.
8 Gbyte is enough.

You also need a (free) program to write a downloaded ISO to a USB stick. Booting from the USB stick to test won't hurt anything, though an incorrect install would. You may need to edit several options on the boot setup scree / EFI etc for the existing laptop.

A mini-laptop has too small a screen for Win10. You want at least 1920x1080 on 14" and expect to pay close to €500 for one. Non-shiny is best, costs more. A 500G HDD is better value than cheap consumer 120 G SSD. A same spec mac is about x2 more than decent non-mac.

The headless "mini" PC boxes are bad value. Nice aspect of a laptop is the built in UPS, equivalent to spending nearly €200 for one for a screen and PC box.

[stumped]

new micro PCs probably are poor value yes, but I bought an acer veriton 4gb ram micro pc on ebay, added win 10 ( but for £10 more I could have picked one with that pre-installed). USB3 ports, wifi on board, almost silent ( one tiny fan) all for under £100. i thought that was good value though I did not keep it. Worst feature was the case. That's the only time I have bought a PC and had to contact seller saying help, I cant get the lid off!
I also bought a lenovo one ( m83 or m93 from memory) but accidentally bought the next size up ( mini, not micro) PC with a DVD drive included. Kept that instead as my wife's replacement PC . i5 processor, 8Gb RAM, intel on board graphics. Does everything she needs

the dont buy a new pc buy this - offer is a bootable USB stick with linux pre installed ( dunno what flavour), it is aimed at people with zero knowledge, and the ad says just boot from it and its like having a new PC. Makes sense that you could make your own at a fraction of the price if you know what's what.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

With Windows, at least, there are pretty cheap new laptops available running the latest Windows 10. And you can buy a very low-priced used Win 10 laptop. AFAIK there are no cheap options for Macbooks, are there?

Nothing equivalent to cheap-crap bottom end Windows laptops, no. If the OP wanted to spend nothing but time, they could install Linux on their venerable Mac, as already discussed. The cheapest brand new MacBook Air right now is $999 US full price. And of course there are discounts and refurbs around, and secondhand is cheaper.

I was disagreeing with the "Apple merryground" assertion above. I don't think that Calibre not having every latest and greatest feature on a more-than-a-decade-old machine is good example of a rapid-obsolescence merry-go-round. It's not terribly dizzying when you only get on it once every dozen years or so, or maybe even hold out a bit longer than that.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by meeera

I don't think that Calibre not having every latest and greatest feature on a >decade-old machine is good example of a rapid-obsolescence merry-go-round.

Having an old Calibre version has one major drawback: if you buy a new ereader, it's not supported. Other bells and whistles aren't that important.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Having an old Calibre version has one major drawback: if you buy a new ereader, it's not supported. Other bells and whistles aren't that important.

I doubt the person with the noughties Mac is rushing out to buy a Kobo Nia, but you never know. Always a good idea to do your research before making that sort of decision.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by meeera

I doubt the person with the noughties Mac is rushing out to buy a Kobo Nia, but you never know. Always a good idea to do your research before making that sort of decision.

Or they might be the first in the line as the reading device is what matters to them. If they have a Glo, they might consider this is the right time.

In any case, there is a way to add the support if needed. I did it for 1.48 and the first couple of Kobo devices released after it. But, there weren't many users of it, so I don't know if it is actually worth the effort. Adding a new device isn't much effort, thought it blocks usage of the extended driver. Adding the the Series tab function that is in firmware 4.20.x would be a lot more work, but the Kobo Utilities plugin supports this.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by stumped

browser addins like send to Kindle will grab a web article and format it as a "book", then send it.... but only to Kindle i.e. you are getting a /mobi file, probably. but you can convert that.

There is dot epub. https://dotepub.com/

[The_book]

I'd like to say, you are too far from what I want I discuss.Two completely different topics.