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Wired Magazine Profile of Tim O'Reilly

Posted by Zonk on from the i-wish-i-had-radar dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Best-selling author Steven Levy has a new profile of techincal publisher Tim O'Reilly over at Wired." From the article: "... O'Reilly himself has operated for years under the radar. Most nontechies, if they know him at all, know him by the eponymous name of his publishing company. It has a 15 percent share of the $400 million computer-book market but casts a much bigger shadow. O'Reilly books tend to colonize entire sections at Borders and Barnes & Noble, their distinctive cover design as recognizable as the Tide circle on a box of detergent or the Apple logo on the lid of a PowerBook. In serif type over a glossy white background, there is the title, often naming a computer language or protocol familiar to codeheads and gibberish to everyone else (JavaServer Faces; Essential CVS; Using Samba, 2nd Edition). The illustrations are realistically rendered pen-and-ink drawings of animals."

5 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. animals? Bah! by Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Funny
    "The illustrations are realistically rendered pen-and-ink drawings of animals."

    How dare you call this man an animal! Don't you have any respect for fine gentlemen?!

    1. Re:animals? Bah! by game+kid · · Score: 3, Funny

      He looks gentle...but pair him with a needy wife (or a comparable Windows PC) and he's a rowdy outlaw biker.

      His face reminds me of Poe for some reason. I can imagine Poe running Red Hat, though While I wondered, nearly napping, what the hell this GNU GRUB thingy is doesn't seem like good poetry...

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  2. O'Really! by snuf23 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I generally love O'reilly books and also get quite a kick out of the O'Really parodies. Everything from "Windows NT's Infernal Filesystem" to "Practical UNIX Terrorism". These are great t-shirts if just for the look on a fellow techies face when they read the title.

    --
    Sometimes my arms bend back.
  3. Good stuff by xgamer04 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This was a- good article, but -I keep thinking- some-thing's wrong with it. I just can-'t put my finger on it,- though...

    --
    When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
  4. Re:I think most nontechies know him as someone els by edremy · · Score: 3, Funny
    I have an O'Reilly t-shirt that I wear around here, and I've gotten comments from some of the local folks about being also being a huge fan.

    Sadly, they aren't talking about the computer books, unless the 50-year-old guy at the gas station counter is a laid off DEC guy.

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"