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Safari Books Online (I think recently rebranded as O'Reilly Online) is a pretty decent value -- about $49 USD a month for access to most O'Reilly, PragProg, Man

Safari Books Online (I think recently rebranded as O'Reilly Online) is a pretty decent value -- about $49 USD a month for access to most O'Reilly, PragProg, Manning, and quite a few other non-programmer focused publishing houses like Academic Press. Between that subscription, my scribd subscription (which has plenty of unauthorized titles in addition to its authorized titles), and PDFs I'm able to find elsewhere, I'm pretty set. (not affiliated with either OReilly or Scribd, just a happy user) Despite this, I strongly prefer a physical copy. Except for some of the books on Safari which I use as a quick reference, I mostly use PDF copies as a sort of extended preview before purchasing (or not!) a physical copy But the interviewee is spot on when he argues that a pirated download != a lost sale. The idea that it is is just pure silliness. Before I got into tech, if I couldn't find a PDF of a $70-120 book I simply wouldn't read it. Period.

breck 7y ago
Interesting, thanks for sharing. I knew about Scribd but didn't know O'Reilly had a subscription offering. Although, like you, I strongly prefer physical copies, and so not sure if it's worth $49 for digital which I read far less. I would probably pay $49/month for full digital access if it came with 1-2 physical books per month as well.
iamiam 7y ago
Yes, Safari is a good deal...they also have a nice trial period which requires a simple signup/no payment.
clumsysmurf 7y ago
I have Safari, and find it to be a poor value. Here are a few reasons (1) you can't read books in your browser while offline (2) many publishers don't contribute to Safari (Springer, MIT Press, etc) (3) publishers that are technically on Safari don't publish their whole catalog (Wiley) (4) Publishers that are on Safari, and do publish their whole catalog, may take months, a year even to put their books online (Wrox). (5) A lot of the books in the catalog are from Packt, which I consider noise. So, while I do have Safari, I use it as a last resort and buy the DRM-free PDFs from publishers that have then (Manning, Prag Prog, etc) even if they are in Safari. This past week, my account got corrupted. I lost about one years worth of Playlists that I put much effort into curating. All gone. Support was able to get me a CSV file of a known good state, but its going to be a PITA to manually recreate everything again. I might not bother.
- vector_spaces 7y ago
  I wish Springer titles were available on SBO -- that would make the service worthwhile for me. As it stands, I consider it a good value, but only barely, and for many of the points you have raised. That said, I can't fault them for having every publisher's catalog, since their focus seems to be on software and software-adjacent subjects. The publishers you mentioned have vast catalogs largely in areas outside of their sweet spot. With regard to your account being corrupted, yikes -- I'm sorry that happened, and I can't say I'm super surprised. I've always found their playlists and "recently read" UI to be buggy to the point that I don't really bother much with it. For example, items "recently read" on their mobile app don't seem to sync with desktop/browser and vice versa. I will also say that their recent embrace of dark patterns has been bumming me out -- aggressive marketing modals on login goading me into attending one of their live seminars, and breaking basic browser functionality (eg copy -- you can surprisingly copy text from inside books in SBO, but it will almost certainly be a bad time for you when you eventually try to paste it somewhere), among others.
jnurmine 7y ago
I tried Safari/O'Reilly Online and I think it is too expensive. The time I can spend every month for "extra" reading translates to roughly one book. For 49 USD a month, I could just buy the book secondhand every month (and even sell it further when done). I would have happily paid 5 USD a month, but 49 USD, that's way too much for the value, for me.
- Cephalopterus 7y ago
  I wish they had pricing based on countries PPP instead of a flat international pricing, it's kinda expensive if you're not from a first world country cause atleast where I am, $588 (49x12) would easily pay for a semester of college. O'Reilly does have local reprints of the books for slightly cheaper through their partners here but I wish they would also implement a similar pricing discount for Safari
- cptnapalm 7y ago
  If you have a local library system, it might have a subscription. It saves the library a lot of money versus physical copies and gives the user a lot more possibilities.
acomjean 7y ago
It always bugged me a little that I used to be able to by un-drm-ed books on OReilly, now I have to subscribe to get drm. (My work has a subscription and it’s ok...) I understand they’re was probably so much piracy it forced their hand (books being small files, easy to distribute). According to the article people are scanning books now and uploading.. which I didn’t realize was happening. There are a few sellers that sell you a un drm es books. Manning though puts a “licensed to ______” on each page in a attempt to make me not share. It’s kinda a tragedy that behaving badly puts you at an advantage (free books more money for me) vs those that buy. There are people that legit can’t afford the books and it’s kinda nice to have that option.
alecco 7y ago
$49 a month sounds like a lot if you read ~1 book a month and that catalogue is quite narrow. Audible has a similar narrow catalogue but a more aligned price. When reading more (e.g. traveling) I buy extra credits at a reasonable price. I think Safari is close to the fitness gym upfront year plan. Are most people who subscribe really going to read $49 worth of their material per month?
- vector_spaces 7y ago
  I think Safari's content has a greater value density than Audible's. For example, I've been referencing a half dozen textbooks the past month or so on theory and implementation of risk models for the insurance industry via Safari. The information I've learned from some of these books is easily worth $49 and then some. I could imagine someone learning to code for the first time might find better value elsewhere with that $49 a month, but in my case I think that it works out.

breck 7y ago

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I knew about Scribd but didn't know O'Reilly had a subscription offering. Although, like you, I strongly prefer physical copies, and so not sure if it's worth $49 for digital which I read far less. I would probably pay $49/month for full digital access if it came with 1-2 physical books per month as well.

iamiam 7y ago

Yes, Safari is a good deal...they also have a nice trial period which requires a simple signup/no payment.

clumsysmurf 7y ago

I have Safari, and find it to be a poor value. Here are a few reasons (1) you can't read books in your browser while offline (2) many publishers don't contribute to Safari (Springer, MIT Press, etc) (3) publishers that are technically on Safari don't publish their whole catalog (Wiley) (4) Publishers that are on Safari, and do publish their whole catalog, may take months, a year even to put their books online (Wrox). (5) A lot of the books in the catalog are from Packt, which I consider noise. So, while I do have Safari, I use it as a last resort and buy the DRM-free PDFs from publishers that have then (Manning, Prag Prog, etc) even if they are in Safari. This past week, my account got corrupted. I lost about one years worth of Playlists that I put much effort into curating. All gone. Support was able to get me a CSV file of a known good state, but its going to be a PITA to manually recreate everything again. I might not bother.

vector_spaces 7y ago
I wish Springer titles were available on SBO -- that would make the service worthwhile for me. As it stands, I consider it a good value, but only barely, and for many of the points you have raised. That said, I can't fault them for having every publisher's catalog, since their focus seems to be on software and software-adjacent subjects. The publishers you mentioned have vast catalogs largely in areas outside of their sweet spot. With regard to your account being corrupted, yikes -- I'm sorry that happened, and I can't say I'm super surprised. I've always found their playlists and "recently read" UI to be buggy to the point that I don't really bother much with it. For example, items "recently read" on their mobile app don't seem to sync with desktop/browser and vice versa. I will also say that their recent embrace of dark patterns has been bumming me out -- aggressive marketing modals on login goading me into attending one of their live seminars, and breaking basic browser functionality (eg copy -- you can surprisingly copy text from inside books in SBO, but it will almost certainly be a bad time for you when you eventually try to paste it somewhere), among others.

jnurmine 7y ago

I tried Safari/O'Reilly Online and I think it is too expensive. The time I can spend every month for "extra" reading translates to roughly one book. For 49 USD a month, I could just buy the book secondhand every month (and even sell it further when done). I would have happily paid 5 USD a month, but 49 USD, that's way too much for the value, for me.

Cephalopterus 7y ago
I wish they had pricing based on countries PPP instead of a flat international pricing, it's kinda expensive if you're not from a first world country cause atleast where I am, $588 (49x12) would easily pay for a semester of college. O'Reilly does have local reprints of the books for slightly cheaper through their partners here but I wish they would also implement a similar pricing discount for Safari
cptnapalm 7y ago
If you have a local library system, it might have a subscription. It saves the library a lot of money versus physical copies and gives the user a lot more possibilities.

acomjean 7y ago

It always bugged me a little that I used to be able to by un-drm-ed books on OReilly, now I have to subscribe to get drm. (My work has a subscription and it’s ok...) I understand they’re was probably so much piracy it forced their hand (books being small files, easy to distribute). According to the article people are scanning books now and uploading.. which I didn’t realize was happening. There are a few sellers that sell you a un drm es books. Manning though puts a “licensed to ______” on each page in a attempt to make me not share. It’s kinda a tragedy that behaving badly puts you at an advantage (free books more money for me) vs those that buy. There are people that legit can’t afford the books and it’s kinda nice to have that option.

alecco 7y ago

$49 a month sounds like a lot if you read ~1 book a month and that catalogue is quite narrow. Audible has a similar narrow catalogue but a more aligned price. When reading more (e.g. traveling) I buy extra credits at a reasonable price. I think Safari is close to the fitness gym upfront year plan. Are most people who subscribe really going to read $49 worth of their material per month?

vector_spaces 7y ago
I think Safari's content has a greater value density than Audible's. For example, I've been referencing a half dozen textbooks the past month or so on theory and implementation of risk models for the insurance industry via Safari. The information I've learned from some of these books is easily worth $49 and then some. I could imagine someone learning to code for the first time might find better value elsewhere with that $49 a month, but in my case I think that it works out.