How long have you been using Calibre?

[BetterRed]

I used symlinks in Author, Publisher and Tag folders from NT4.0 onwards That's essentially what Windows Libraries use to provide access to the same data from different directories (indexes). On XP and later I used Shinagl's LSE, with Kimura's Symliink driver on XP.

Then I found calibre. I still use LSE to create Symlinks, Hardlinks etc.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I used to do the directory structure. It was by main genre and then by main author.

And how did that work for finding books in a shared world series or books with multiple authors?

As @BetterRed mentioned, I made use of symlinks to reduce the number of duplicate books but that way lay madness when you realize how many symlinks you need to cover all the variations I wanted to use.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

And how did that work for finding books in a shared world series or books with multiple authors?

Books like that went in the directory of the main author. I did not have all that many eBooks overall back then. My collection grew a lot more once I got the Sony Reader PRS-500 and started used LibPRS500. Before we had ePub, I bought mostly LIT and some Mobipocket because I was able to remove the DRM from both formats.

As @BetterRed mentioned, I made use of symlinks to reduce the number of duplicate books but that way lay madness when you realize how many symlinks you need to cover all the variations I wanted to use.

That must have been quite a mess.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As @BetterRed mentioned, I made use of symlinks to reduce the number of duplicate books but that way lay madness when you realize how many symlinks you need to cover all the variations I wanted to use.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That must have been quite a mess.

Not a mess but complex and complex to maintain. You didn't just add a book in one place, you added the book and then added symlinks in all the places they were needed. Just asking for human error to kick you in teeth so I ended up writing an interactive batch file which I finally got working after multiple tries. Of course, I promptly added new search criteria which needed to be added so back to testing. When you realize you are spending more time on cataloguing tasks than reading, new solutions were called for. calibre was by far the best looking one and I've been very happy with the switch since.

I am forever grateful to Kovid Goyal, Charles Haley, David Forrester and Grant Drake for the creation and maintenance of calibre and it's plugins.

[Valkrider]

May 2010 are my earliest books so some time.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not a mess but complex and complex to maintain. You didn't just add a book in one place, you added the book and then added symlinks in all the places they were needed. Just asking for human error to kick you in teeth so I ended up writing an interactive batch file which I finally got working after multiple tries. Of course, I promptly added new search criteria which needed to be added so back to testing. When you realize you are spending more time on cataloguing tasks than reading, new solutions were called for. calibre was by far the best looking one and I've been very happy with the switch since.

I am forever grateful to Kovid Goyal, Charles Haley, David Forrester and Grant Drake for the creation and maintenance of calibre and it's plugins.

I walked a similar path... but without simlink. And I'm very grateful to them, and Charles Haley I'm very grateful too for calibre companion, that I still keep the original version... and it's working.

[dewd]

My earliest-dated book in Calibre is December 1981, so going by that, I was using it a quarter-century before Kovid created it. Also a few years before I ever touched a computer. But I'm not entirely convinced that's correct lol.

I've a few other books with dates pre-dating the 2000s, so clearly this is not an infallible method. I've a lot of books from 2011 onwards, and realistically, that's probably an accurate indicator of when I started using Calibre, though it was probably 2015-ish when I started using it seriously.

[JBaby]

The oldest book in my library is dated July 15, 2010. I’ve only ever used Calibre on a Mac. Life changing. I was able to all of the ebooks I’d purchased since 1999 in one place. I didn’t even have an ereader until May 2019. The plugins are my favorite thing about Calibre. There’s nothing better than Calibre! I have upgraded Macs twice since 2010 and it was so easy to move to new machines. I’m happy to be a Calibre Patron. It’s money well spent!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I am forever grateful to Kovid Goyal, Charles Haley, David Forrester and Grant Drake for the creation and maintenance of calibre and it's plugins.

I'm grateful to everyone who writes code for calibre, reports errors, helps support calibre, and helps make MobileRead the best support for calibre, eBooks, and Readers.

I remember back when we were helping with support for Book Designer and LlbPRS500 (before it became calibre).