>Calibre is one of the few general public facing open source application that is best in class.

Never though about that but its true.

Unless, like me, you downloaded it initially as an ebook reader app. I’m hopeful 5.0 isn’t as abysmal at just trying to scroll through a book.

But the rest is absolutely best in class. In fact, it’s sadly the only in class for some things, I’m afraid.

Reading is obviously an add-on. Are you using the content server view? Locally, on linux it just calls whatever program I specify to read. I'm partial to fbreader, on linux and android.

I do use the web content viewer some, but mostly I just browse and download the books I want to my device.

FYI, the web viewer seems to work offline, it caches the files locally. If you haven't tried it, it's super nice. I have a 1TB time4vps storage server, and I sync my library to that server and run a headless calibre server with simple authentication to prevent crawlers.

I'll give it a try.

You are/were evaluating it in the wrong class there I think. What viewing it provides seems intended to be functional as an extension of its role for management purposes; not ergonomic for actually reading the ebook.

The content view is pretty usable for reading, especially if you're on a locked down device that can't install a an e-reader app.

Exactly, and I use it for the other things, now. Just not reading.

Yes, I completely agree.

I'm not sure whether it's one of his expected use-cases, but his work has made it so simple for me to get things from my writing group quickly onto my kindle. Plus, my own draft stories.

As someone who spends far too long on a computer screen as it is, the simple workflow of putting things easily on a kindle has been a real positive for me. And doubly so in this time of lockdown and Covid.

If the author does browse these forums - thank you so much for your work.

Completely agree with you. Let me add my voice too to say how glad and grateful I am for all the work done by the author. He's always helpful too on the forum and friendly.

Totally agree. I'm not sure I would use ebooks if Calibre wasn't there. Sure, some things could be improved like any app, but it does the job really well. Maintaining such a big app is no small feat.