3 ms·

Do both if you can. You can find my books for free if you do a bit of digging or ask me. Otherwise just publish a large percentage of the book as free, and sel

Do both if you can. You can find my books for free if you do a bit of digging or ask me. Otherwise just publish a large percentage of the book as free, and sell full copies. And don't believe that people who have a free copy will never buy a formal edition. Two books I have right here on my shelf in physical form, which I also downloaded free versions of are Steven Smith's Guide to Signal Processing for Scientists and Engineers - awesome beginners DSP text I still recommend to first year students, and Ross Anderson's Security Engineering, most of which is downloadable from his website.

ushakov 5y ago
thanks for the tip! i'd consider that
2143 5y ago
How about a really cheap Kindle version as well? (I don't know much about selling on Amazon so I don't even know if this is a viable suggestion). > And don't believe that people who have a free copy will never buy a formal edition Yep! Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces is an excellent book which the authors have made freely available online. After reading it for a while, I purchased a physical copy, both to support the authors for their excellent work, and also because I personally prefer physical books. Keep in mind that not everyone prefers physical books. I mean, I could've easily printed the book as my college offered free printing. But I didn't.
- blondin 5y ago
  Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces is quite a horrible print. with my apologies to the authors. they did a great job and i enjoyed the read. but it was a painful experience on my eyes. the horrible courier sans or similar font. i would advise people to only buy the book to show support. not for reading. not only it's a poor print but the fourth piece (security) is missing entirely.
  - 2143 5y ago
    Really? I bought it back in 2018 from USA and back then all the pieces seemed to be there. The print quality is fine for my copy atleast though I understand if it isn't as much as what you paid for. But then again textbooks (and college in general though I don't want to get into that discussion as it has been discussed plenty in the past) in USA seem weirdly expensive. From what I understand, the security piece came later. I found this from their Book News [1] (effectively a changelog) website: >>> v1.01 07/06/20: Added new Security chapters by Peter Reiher (UCLA) to the main page. These are included only on the webpage and not in printed form or in the entire PDF at this point. So, they warn you about it. > i would advise people to only buy the book to show support. not for reading. In that case there's a donate button in their site [2]. In the same vein, apparently they also sell laptop stickers, mats, mugs, t-shirts etc. On the website it's right above the text about donating. [1] https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html [2] https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/#donate https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/#donate
  - nonrandomstring 5y ago
    > is quite a horrible print... with my apologies to the authors. they did a great job and I enjoyed the read. but it was a painful experience on my eyes. the horrible courier sans or similar font. You raise a really interesting question I have talked about with my editors for some time now... why don't we release the source (as many on archivex do)? You can buy a print version, or an e-book, but if you want a free version just grab the LaTeX. Don't like the font? Change it yourself.

ushakov 5y ago

thanks for the tip! i'd consider that

2143 5y ago

How about a really cheap Kindle version as well? (I don't know much about selling on Amazon so I don't even know if this is a viable suggestion). > And don't believe that people who have a free copy will never buy a formal edition Yep! Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces is an excellent book which the authors have made freely available online. After reading it for a while, I purchased a physical copy, both to support the authors for their excellent work, and also because I personally prefer physical books. Keep in mind that not everyone prefers physical books. I mean, I could've easily printed the book as my college offered free printing. But I didn't.

blondin 5y ago
Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces is quite a horrible print. with my apologies to the authors. they did a great job and i enjoyed the read. but it was a painful experience on my eyes. the horrible courier sans or similar font. i would advise people to only buy the book to show support. not for reading. not only it's a poor print but the fourth piece (security) is missing entirely.
- 2143 5y ago
  Really? I bought it back in 2018 from USA and back then all the pieces seemed to be there. The print quality is fine for my copy atleast though I understand if it isn't as much as what you paid for. But then again textbooks (and college in general though I don't want to get into that discussion as it has been discussed plenty in the past) in USA seem weirdly expensive. From what I understand, the security piece came later. I found this from their Book News [1] (effectively a changelog) website: >>> v1.01 07/06/20: Added new Security chapters by Peter Reiher (UCLA) to the main page. These are included only on the webpage and not in printed form or in the entire PDF at this point. So, they warn you about it. > i would advise people to only buy the book to show support. not for reading. In that case there's a donate button in their site [2]. In the same vein, apparently they also sell laptop stickers, mats, mugs, t-shirts etc. On the website it's right above the text about donating. [1] https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html [2] https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/#donate https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/#donate
- nonrandomstring 5y ago
  > is quite a horrible print... with my apologies to the authors. they did a great job and I enjoyed the read. but it was a painful experience on my eyes. the horrible courier sans or similar font. You raise a really interesting question I have talked about with my editors for some time now... why don't we release the source (as many on archivex do)? You can buy a print version, or an e-book, but if you want a free version just grab the LaTeX. Don't like the font? Change it yourself.