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Comment by maweki | Hacker News Reader

I host this at home. I don't use it myself, I can use the linux CLI tools that its based on. But I prefer my wife to use this to convert/split/etc. her pdf files this way instead of using some random website or app (that uses the same cli tool anyway).

She doesn't mind either way. Seems to work well enough for her use cases.

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> … use the Linux CLI tools it is based on

I am interested in this part. Here is what I found: https://pdfbox.apache.org/2.0/commandline.html

Since PDFBox is a Java application, it should work cross-platform, not just Linux. Please correct me if you mean something else.

I am sorry. I was under the impression that, at least for some features, Stirling PDF also uses pdfjam or similar, instead of wholly delegating to PDFBox. I think the point still stands, that there are powerful cli tools and I wouldn't consider running this container just for myself.

Probably anybody who can get this docker container running, can use appropiate open source cli tools. So one would wonder about the target audience. I don't. ;)

But I do indeed LibreOffice's command line conversion features.

You should just get a perpetual license to a PDF tool for $70. Best money ever spent. And get a portable exe version too.

They seem to have a working solution that they, and their wife, is happy with. Why should they spend money on a different solution?

Because it is two birds with one stone? Because it is one less system to maintain? Because it is superior to a web based UI with mutliple tools under different headers? because it is simple for even the least technical?

Suggestion is to use a free Pdf xchange editor by tracker software. And print the document to pdf when done.

Counterpoint: A web service is one thing to maintain that then works on all devices, including mobile. A PDF tool needs to be installed.

That is a good point in the world of ipad, android, and iphone. But did you know that iOS has most of these features built in? I just discovered this now.

I'm running this in a container on my nas. There isn't anything to maintain with tools like this. If setup, properly - they keep running unless stopped. They can even be auto-updated when their is a new image. I have several types of utility apps I'm self-hosting. I rarely have to do anything other than keep the OS updated.

What nas system do you use that runs containers? I tried the whole container thing and have to reboot my system every week

You had to reboot your system every week because you tried a container?

Unraid is nice, and pretty easy to maintain. You get a web interface and can set up auto updates. There a many different applications in their app store, too, or you can make your own using plain docker.

Just plain ubuntu server and docker installed. I use Portainer to manage the containers. Container images are updated automatically using watchtower.

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