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Free Books Online
Matt Braithwaite writes "Answering RMS's call for free documentation, Karl Fogel has written a
book on CVS that is free (GPLed) and available online. (The
paper version
has additional non-free material.) " Also, edinator wrote to say that ORA has put the Using Samba text online. Some old news there, but, hey, some light figure for after eating turkey.
For anyone who's not already aware of it...
InformIT has quite a selection of books in their Free Library. It has a number of books from Que, SAMS, and New Riders, among others. They're all available for online reading.
PigPog.
The entire text of the Oreilly Docbook is downloadable www.docbook.org (bit above my head though) BruceEckels Thinking in Java is downloadable in many formats. www.bruceeckel.com In the past some people have assumed that nobody would buy a book if the text was online. Bruce Eckel comments that it will cost you almost as much in toner cartridge to print out the book as it would to buy (I know this doesn't hold true for all of the world, and certainly not here in the UK). The analogy I like to draw is that of newspapers in public libraries. Sure you can get to read them for free, but if the price is reasonable it is much more convenient to buy your very own copy to take away and read on the bus. Last but not least another fine example of online technical text is ....ahem , my very own Java Cert tutorial (100's of pages) online. http://www.software.u-net.com Marcus Green
Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't Stallman's original point that when people don't get paid for their software, they would get paid for support? ;-), but where is it leading to?
I consider documentation as part of that support, so what's next? A call for free support centers?
I think this is cool (I like free documentation!
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
I really like this approach because
a) there are people who could really use the
information in the books, but can't afford them.
(poor students?) These people would have to make
do with other possibly worse docs. The publishers
win because these people will gain respect
for the publisher if the book is any good.
b) people with cash to spend can make better
choices. For instance if I came across an online
book which I thought was relevant and good, I
would be more inclined to buy it. Even if it
had nothing new to me, I still may buy it for
my co-workers.
There really is nothing like a bound book.
Computer professionals desks are swamped in
reams of a4 printouts. Does anybody actually
print the things out instead of reading online?
STeve.
There's also www.itknowledge.com, which has a free archive, with all the books from InformIt and more. They also have lots of on-line books for only $150/year. There's also books24x7.com, w/o free section and $200/year, but they're worth it. There's also www.ibooks.com, which will come online soon, they say. Go check all these out.
In a world without walls, who needs Windows? In a world without fences, who needs Gates?
The GPL is not really appropriate for documents (see below). View the OpenContent licence for a more appropriate document.
The OpenContent Content Database (I love that name!) lists the few documents that are known to have been released under the licence.
From the OpenContent FAQ:
Hi!
at: http://www.dreamscape.com/frankvad/free.books.html http://www.icemall.com/free/free_books.html have a nice read ...
The GPL is not appropriate for all documentation - specifically programming language tutorials. Picture someone at company X using this tutorial, say perlipc.pod (assuming that was a GPL'd tutorial - which it isn't), as a starting point for the IPC part of his perl application. He takes the code, and adds huge amounts to it (ie the bulk of his application). Suddenly he realises - one small piece of his code, taken from a tutorial, is GPL'd (because the tutorial itself is GPL'd). Suddenly his whole app has to be GPL'd because the GPL requires this. That's a bad thing, simply because he didn't really think this was a choice he was making. Who considers the licence on examples we copy from books? That sort of thing should be really free - public domain or some other licence that would allow this (the AL comes to mind).
I know this rant belongs to Tom C, but I feel the same.
However some docs can be GPL'd without this worry. I can't really see this affecting the CVS book for example - it's not like it's a programming language. Unless it contains C code examples (which I doubt it does).
Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
So I assume he also feel the GPL is inadequate for books. Also, note that the books published by the FSF aren't under the GPL either, but under ad-hoc licenses.
The documentation is part of the software and is forked with it; precisely the same freedoms should accompany it. I don't see any problem with the docs for GPL software being under the GPL.
I'd also be happier if the OPL were certified Open Source.
--
Xenu loves you!
I've been doing a lot of emailing with RMS of late, and something that I think must annoy him is silly twats like me failing to go to the ever-useful philosophy section of his website.
Just a few notes about Free Books. Richard has - I may be hearing FUD here - previously called O'Reilly the "parasite of Free Software". O'Reilly was and is the de facto "Publisher to Hackerdom", and their license terms used to inspire RMS to say:
Of course, things have changed now. O'Reilly has begun to talk about their Open Publishing License (or whatever it is), and have begun to put certain books online. I would be interested in seeing if Richard considers these to be "Free Documentation" or not.
BTW, I'll agree that the GPL does not really address documentation very well. The OpenContent License is aimed at this sort of stuff.
As someone else pointed out: Richard's constant mantra is "Free documentation, like free software, is a matter of freedom, not price".
Books still have their advantages over online docs, mind you. For example, a book has a near-zero boot time, has effectively infinite uptime, has extremely high definition displays, allows you to add your own notes directly to the 'file' (requires a Pen (tm) or Pencil (tm)), it is highly portable, it is compatible with most People, it can be found in alternate formats for non-compatible people (ie Braille), it can be given as a gift, it can be thrown at a faulty TV screen, it can be used to attract attention from others (thy fellow geek) or to drive it away (thy fellow 'blond').
Online documentation is searchable, so that you can curse and swear when you don't have the precise phrase you need. It's quick, and cross-linked and whatnot, and utterly inscrutable. Oh, and you can print it out yourself ...
Be well;
JC.
-- The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the fictional entity who may or may not have expressed them
The Second edition of the Gimp User's Manual is also reslesed under a free license (OPL).
The biggest difference is that you can get it in both pdf and html format and all chapters are avalible. I consider that publishing it in a html only is not so free. Only publish a subset is also to be considered not so free.
Why? Well as a reader you want to be able to print the whole book and and have it next to you when you deal with your projet. Maybe you also want to bring it with you and read it in your bed etc.
Still it a good thing that people and publishers let readers/users read the book for free. Me my self buy my books since paper format is always nicer. I also think you should buy your books (if you can afford it) since otherwise no one will write books.
The biggest thing is however to be able to choose, buy or download
O'Reilly's "Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide" can be read at: http://www.palm.com/devzone/docs/pptdg/TableOfCont ents.htm