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O'Reilly Gives Away Free Programming Ebooks (oreilly.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the digital-documents dept.

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: There's now a section on OReilly.com offering free ebooks about computer programming. There's four free Java ebooks and seven about Python, as well as an "Other" section which contains ebooks like C++ Today, Swift Pocket Reference, and Why Rust? But there's also some broader categories for Open Source and Software Architecture ebooks, as well as separate sections for their free ebooks about Data, Security, Web Development, and the Internet of Things.

3 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Define "free" by arth1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why do I have to enter my name and e-mail address, if they're free?

    1. Re:Define "free" by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know full well that in this case free just means they aren't charging any money for it. It doesn't mean that they are giving away their rights on these books and so they don't have to make them available for a straight anonymous download. They do these sorts of deals to get potential customers to their site. If you could just at hand out anonymous links to the books then it would fail their goal.

      If you don't want to give them you details then don't get the books. Easy!

  2. Three Cheers for O'Reilly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you don't want to give away your e-mail use an anonymous one. Plenty out there.

    Yes these are general books about programming but it's still good value. Some publishers like Elsevier take and take and take from the community without giving anything back EXCEPT POLITICAL DONATIONS TO CONGRESSMEN TO KEEP THEIR CARTEL. O'Reilly's done very well out of the programming community but he does give back. Good for him.