FreeBSD Handbook In Print

Jim Mock writes in to "announce the hardcopy release of the FreeBSD Handbook. Written by the FreeBSD Documentation Project, the FreeBSD Handbook is a comprehensive guide to installing and running FreeBSD, and covers the installation and day-to-day use of FreeBSD, the ports collection, kernel configuration, the X Window System, printing, FreeBSD's Linux binary compatibility support, upgrading your system from source by using the ``make world'' command, and much more." Read on for more details.

Integrity demands that I point out that in another window I'm the FreeBSD Documentation project manager -- that doesn't mean I get to see any of the money this raises though, so the black-helicopter gang needn't worry. Jim continues: "If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the handbook, you can do so online from the FreeBSDMall or Walnut Creek CDROM."

If you're involved in other open source documentation efforts you might be interested to know that the Handbook is marked up in (a slightly extended version of) the DocBook DTD (and more details about the extensions are available at the Doc. Project Primer). The "source" for the Handbook is (naturally) available in CVS, as are the tools and infrastructure used to build it.

Comments

Looks very good

[mvw]

Congrats to Jim for finishing that work.

I hope I will be able to pick it up in a shop soon and am curious what format it uses, with its approx. 800 pages it will be a solid book.

The price is also interesting. Frustrated with the slow progress of the German translation project, I am looking into the possibility to hire some students for help, financing this by the sales, since I became aware of book on demand publishing, a method that seems suited for low volume printings. This makes calculation a bit easier and gives people a better idea of what to expect.