Slashdot Mirror
O'Reilly Gives Away Free Programming Ebooks (oreilly.com)
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.
Why do I have to enter my name and e-mail address, if they're free?
Just do these regex replacements on the URLs:
curl 'http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/' | grep '\.csp' | sed 's/^.*href="//' | sed 's/free\/\(.*\).csp">/free\/\1.pdf/'
http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program...
O'Reillys books are universally really high quality. Back in the 1990s and 2000s, I'd buy their books pretty much sight unseen. They were never cheap, but they were definitely worth every penny.
These days, there are so many amazing online resources, it is rare that I would get use from a printed book. I am a little sad and nostalgic, but I honestly don't see their business model lasting all that much longer. Even if all of their books were readily and cheaply available online, I probably still wouldn't read them. It's simply the wrong way to present the type of information that I need.
don't be so negative about everything.
this is not ideal, but it is good. and not a lie.
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.
As far as I know, O'Reilly hasn't given away many free books. (Maybe they're changing that now.) But they've sold ebooks at a 50% discount.
You can request to be put on their email list. Then most days, you'll get an email that tells you that one or more books are on sale for 50% off for one day.
Also 3 or 4 times a year, they email you, telling you that for a few days, all ebooks, or all ebooks on a particular subject, are on sale for 50%. If I want to get an ebook, but I'm in no hurry to get it, I wait for those sales to get it.
When you get a book on sale this way, you have to type in the discount code that's mentioned in their email.
I find online resources are best when you're staring at code on a monitor looking for specifics. Books are best when you're offline, browsing information you might not otherwise search for.
Early 90s O'Reilly books were largely reprints of Linux HOWTOs, and were awesome.
Later 90s O'Reilly books were just as good, without the (freebie) HOWTO background, and were also awesome.
i think you've got it backward, though: In OReilly's proper hay-day, they were printing texts that were easily found online.
(I'd tell you to get off of my lawn, but given your UID, I must respectfully thank you for letting hang out for as long as I have, instead. There aren't many of you left in these parts.)
Kid-proof tablet..
There are more sections. So far found:
business
data
design
iot
programming
security
webops-perf
web-platform
If all you want is a quick solution to a problem then obviously online resources are far more convenient than flicking through the index of a book. However if you need to learn something from scratch you often really have to READ a lot about it first in a linear manner, and in that situation IMO a book is a lot more user friendly than scrolling around in a browser or pdf reader. But each to their own.
None of the cool kids are using ISO or ANSI-standardized languages against IEEE-defined standardized interfaces like POSIX anymore. That level of stability and portability doesn't allow twenty-somethings to feel like they are revolutionizing the industry and making the world a better place through beautiful design patterns or whatever.
Sadly you're probably right. And for "revolutionising the industry" read: reinventing the wheel - badly.