3 ms·

Kind of surprised that this book could be published by O'Reilly and also freely available online? Seems unusually generous.

by thurn 2y ago

darthrupert 2y ago
Possibly a sign of confidence. After browsing this for a few minutes, I'm very convinced of its quality and will probably buy it. Wouldn't have happened with a book with just sample pages.
- jjallen 2y ago
  Why buy it if it’s completely free which is implied by your post?
  - kshri24 2y ago
    To support the author. And as a way of saying thank you.
  - dcminter 2y ago
    Because we all know what happens if we're not the customer. I have this; I bought it because I want to reward the author for producing a quality work, and because I want to encourage the publishers to produce other works that would appeal to me. I also happen to like physical texts so I bought the paperback but I have this and the digital edition. The latter is convenient for when I am travelling and appropriately formatted for an eReader (not just the raw html from these pages).
  - smodo 2y ago
    The book isn’t free, its contents are published online by the author. Yes, nitpicking. But (1) I like a well formatted epub and (2) the author/publisher still hold copyright.
  - darthrupert 2y ago
    Because I have written a book and thus know how much work it is to write even a mediocre one. Also as a way to increase my motivation to read it. Plus I have money. This book costs about as much as a good bottle of wine or a bad bottle of whiskey.
    - dcminter 2y ago
      > Plus I have money. This book costs about as much as a good bottle of wine or a bad bottle of whiskey. Exactly. A few years ago I did a really aggressive weeding out of my bookshelves as things were getting far too cluttered. In the process I threw out what must have been - at cover price - several thousand pounds worth of IT related books. On the resale market they were all too stale to have any value (though I did manage to give a handful away to friends). In one way it was a bit painful, but those few thousand pounds worth of books has given me a huge (financial) return on that investment! Cheap at the cost of a good bottle of wine ... for the foundations of a career!
    - tialaramex 2y ago
      > a good bottle of wine or a bad bottle of whiskey. I don't enjoy either but I have friends who decided to specialise and so I'm confident that you can easily reverse this split if you have decided you care more about one or the other.
  - vaylian 2y ago
    Because the people want to show appreciation for the good work the author has done?
  - codr7 2y ago
    True for digital copies, I've never yet bought one of those. I have no trouble paying for physical books though.
  - akkad33 2y ago
    I want to read on Kindle or own the book.
  - WD-42 2y ago
    The last 2 books I’ve bought (ostep and nand2tetris) are available online. Hard copies are nice and personally seeing it on my desk gives more more motivation to finish them.

Kind of surprised that this book could be published by O'Reilly and also freely available online? Seems unusually generous.

by thurn 2y ago

Kind of surprised that this book could be published by O'Reilly and also freely available online? Seems unusually generous.

darthrupert 2y ago

Possibly a sign of confidence. After browsing this for a few minutes, I'm very convinced of its quality and will probably buy it. Wouldn't have happened with a book with just sample pages.

jjallen 2y ago
Why buy it if it’s completely free which is implied by your post?
- kshri24 2y ago
  To support the author. And as a way of saying thank you.
- dcminter 2y ago
  Because we all know what happens if we're not the customer. I have this; I bought it because I want to reward the author for producing a quality work, and because I want to encourage the publishers to produce other works that would appeal to me. I also happen to like physical texts so I bought the paperback but I have this and the digital edition. The latter is convenient for when I am travelling and appropriately formatted for an eReader (not just the raw html from these pages).
- smodo 2y ago
  The book isn’t free, its contents are published online by the author. Yes, nitpicking. But (1) I like a well formatted epub and (2) the author/publisher still hold copyright.
- darthrupert 2y ago
  Because I have written a book and thus know how much work it is to write even a mediocre one. Also as a way to increase my motivation to read it. Plus I have money. This book costs about as much as a good bottle of wine or a bad bottle of whiskey.
  - dcminter 2y ago
    > Plus I have money. This book costs about as much as a good bottle of wine or a bad bottle of whiskey. Exactly. A few years ago I did a really aggressive weeding out of my bookshelves as things were getting far too cluttered. In the process I threw out what must have been - at cover price - several thousand pounds worth of IT related books. On the resale market they were all too stale to have any value (though I did manage to give a handful away to friends). In one way it was a bit painful, but those few thousand pounds worth of books has given me a huge (financial) return on that investment! Cheap at the cost of a good bottle of wine ... for the foundations of a career!
  - tialaramex 2y ago
    > a good bottle of wine or a bad bottle of whiskey. I don't enjoy either but I have friends who decided to specialise and so I'm confident that you can easily reverse this split if you have decided you care more about one or the other.
- vaylian 2y ago
  Because the people want to show appreciation for the good work the author has done?
- codr7 2y ago
  True for digital copies, I've never yet bought one of those. I have no trouble paying for physical books though.
- akkad33 2y ago
  I want to read on Kindle or own the book.
- WD-42 2y ago
  The last 2 books I’ve bought (ostep and nand2tetris) are available online. Hard copies are nice and personally seeing it on my desk gives more more motivation to finish them.