Calibre 0.8.3

Rated 30/50 by anomoly at Nov 16, 2010

For anyone with a lot of ebooks in multiple formats this is THE prog to use as it can convert between them all. No need to look for a way to read some format that you are unfamiliar with. Also has the ability to output to multiple handheld devices. I'll be using winmo or an actual handheld windows os before I buy an overhyped reader. You can easily extract the entire program with uni extract and run it from anywhere though it does need a library folder to work with. Unfortunately it likes to open 9 (9!!) executables every time it starts; 4 instances of calibre-parallel with 4 instances of conhost and the main exe. I can archive the parallel preventing the other 8! instances from opening and the gui starts just fine. Regardless, no matter what, it wants to use 50% cpu on my 3.06ghz with 2gig ddr2. Great for converting and reading but the cpu issue is a problem for sure. I'll more than likely keep it around just for the conversion capabilities and never use it to actually manage my library. Especially if the 9 exe's with 50% cpu issue doesn't go away. Could be it's designed to only work with newer processors but that just sounds wrong. Oh yeah, and it likes to connect the moment you start it as if that is it's main purpose. 3.5 stars

Rated 50/50 by TwinsDad at Nov 16, 2010

For any user of an e-book this is must-have software. Converts formats and manages pretty much any size e-library. Vry regular updates as well. Great stuff.

Rated 30/50 by anomoly at Nov 16, 2010

For anyone with a lot of ebooks in multiple formats this is THE prog to use as it can convert between them all so there's need to look for a way to read some format that you are unfamiliar with. Also has the ability to output to multiple handheld devices. Unnecessary with winmo or a proper os. You can easily extract the entire program with uni extract and run it from anywhere though it does need a (more than likely static pre-scanned) library folder to work with. I have yet to even unpack my entire library. Unfortunately it likes to open 9 (9!!) executables every time it starts; 4 instances of calibre-parallel with 4 instances of conhost and the main exe. I can archive the parallel preventing the other 8! instances from opening and the gui starts just fine. Regardless, no matter what, it is a huge resource hog. Great for converting or reading but the cpu issue is a problem for sure. I'll more than likely keep it around just for the conversion capabilities and never use it to actually manage my library. Especially if the 9 exe's with 50% cpu issue doesn't go away. Could be it's designed to only work with newer processors but that just sounds wrong. Oh yeah, and it likes to connect the moment you start it as if that is it's main purpose. The only way to use this program is to essentially have two libraries; one you already have that's alphabetized by author, and the one calibre creates after it scans your folder structure. Only problem is, it literally copies the data to a secondary location but then creates folders for every title instead of author. If you lose your original file structure and calibre is not available, all you have left is a bunch of folders with book titles for names. I tested it on my letter A folder with 3.5gb's of books categorized by subfolders for each author. It took hours!! just to get ~80% done. Apparently it's not actually smart enough to recognize what scanning the letter A means. I will try creating categories based upon my own folder s

Rated 50/50 by dhry at Nov 17, 2010

While this is probably the most bloated, sluggish program I've used in a long time, probably because it's been frankensteined up from ten million different opensource libraries and isn't developed primarily on Windows, there's no denying that it's the best converter and library manager of its type. Pretty much nobody uses anything else these days. As another reviewer said, it also gets very frequent updates, although I myself can't actually see what most of them do. I wish the interface and the responsiveness would be improved a little (more than 10 seconds to load up on an x64 core i7-920 with 6Gb PC12800 RAM, ayfkm?), but for the moment it works, and you can't beat free.

Rated 20/50 by bobad at Nov 29, 2010

I found Calibre while searching for an ebook converter. Unfortunately, it's the only game in town. It runs slowly, is a bit unstable, but it works. Too bad all that "organizing" baggage comes with the file conversion capabilities. I prefer to organize my files and folders with Windows Explorer, so I consider the whole organizer fluff. There is an unnecessarily steep learning curve because the GUI is quirky and unintuitive. I may like it better after playing with if for an hour or 10, but I'm not so happy with it just now.

Rated 50/50 by VelvetElvis at Dec 31, 2010

Love this program. The "organizing baggage" - the ebook database - is an incredibly helpful and powerful feature. You can download cover art, ratings, and synopsis, and use the powerful search and tagging features to keep track of your collection. It handles most every format I throw at it, with the exception of the admittedly less popular ".imp" format, and lets me easily manage the books on my two e-readers, even deleting the "free" ebooks that came with the reader, which can't be removed by the reader's own software. It's updated frequently too, recently averaging every week or two. Oh, and starts up within 5 seconds on my 4 year old dual core box.

Rated 50/50 by SoundMix at Jan 3, 2011

Very easy to use. Author always responds quickly to problems and improvements. Speed improvements have been made all around.

Rated 50/50 by netean at Jan 31, 2011

What a stunning piece of software. It's not a huge download, but has so many features. the cataloging tool, the search, the book converter, the sync with devices, the webpage to ebook news downloader. The interface is simple, attractive and usable it starts quickly, and just "works" If it could strip out the drm from ebooks it would nothing but perfection, as it is, it's damn close!

Rated 40/50 by LRN at Feb 14, 2011

I've started with FBreader for my e-book reading, but then i've discovered that FBreader developers are considering releasing a proprietary version with DRM support, so i've looked for alternatives. And found Calibre. -1 for its habit of eating away free memory, but otherwise it does everything i wanted. And the part that allows you to read books is separate from the library manager, so you do not need to keep it open just to read.

Rated 50/50 by Raton at Mar 6, 2011

Amazing software ! Not only converts to/from many formats, but also D/L's news from the Web, and itself serves as an e-book reader. The DataRat

Rated 50/50 by wsitechnologies at May 2, 2011

if you have more than just a few ebooks on your computer or ereader...than this is a must have program. Their forum is awesome and full of solutions to almost any issue you may encounter. If you have an idea on a new feature, let them know and if it is a good idea...you will probably find it included in the next release. Also if you like the program drop the guys a few bucks.

Rated 50/50 by roj at May 2, 2011

I love this. it makes my iPad 2 the reader I wanted it to be. I can convert books to ePub and store them on my server. Absolutely sweet. The fact that I can put this on my Windows 7 box, my Lniux box and my son's MacBook Pro makes it even sweeter. FIVE stars.

Rated 50/50 by bobad at May 23, 2011

The Author just keeps on improving and cleaning up the program. I didn't like the program at first,,, I was just looking for a converter. But who knew my wife would collect so many books, and the excellent sorting and wrangling features would be needed? If she had a choice of me or Calibre, bye bye me! 5 stars!