I was looking for a program that ran on both Linux and Windows and came across Bibisco. I also downloaded Trelby, and tried it for a few minutes. I'm currently using yWriter, and I love the way it helps me stay organised and focussed. But I haven't been able to install it on my Linux machine as yet.
I wanted to try a program that would run natively on both Windows and Linux, and both Trelby and Bibisco do that. yWriter supposedly runs too, but it takes a bit of tinkering. Anyway, yWriter's a great program, but it looks dated.
I was downloading Bibisco and was looking for reviews when I came across this thread. It looks to be a new program and there don't seem to be many people using it.
It's written in Java, and the developer has included the runtime in the package, making it easier to run, but at the cost of the file size.
I think it stores the novel in an SQLlite database, that is present in the Bibisco folder, and has not (in the 15 minutes I've been using it) attempted to establish any network connections.
It's got a very nice layout, and I find it more intuitive than yWriter. It guides you through your writing, and I like that.
While the interface isn't polished, it's got a nice modern (but incomplete) feel.
I've barely used it, and can't comment on it's stability, but it lets you export your writing to a rtf file that you can open in any word processor, so as long as you do that often, you're safe should he program suddenly stop working. But since it's using a common database as it's backend, even if you don't do an export, and the program is suddenly unusable, your data should be recoverable.
A major downside (for me) is that it doesn't let you choose your save folder. I like to save all my documents in a folder that I can keep synced online, and with Babisco, I'll be doing that manually.
It's also got a bit of a lag when I use the text editor, which will take some getting used to.
It looks very promising, and I'm going to try it for a while, even though it needs polish.
