Steal This Book (and Others)
In 1970, Abbie Hoffman wrote "Steal This Book" as a criticism against the status-quo. However, instead of being an enduring classic for rousing the sleeping masses to political free will, his alternative lifestyle of the '70s has been diminished to a curiosity. The book title, though, has always been a great opening line.
And even though Hoffman's ideology didn't survive, we are seeing more and more books being published with a variety of licensing that relaxes their distribution. Prentice-Hall PTR has an Open Source Series with Bruce Perens, Series Editor. As they describe it: "This Series focuses on Linux and Open Source technologies, including new and emerging technologies. It targets professional software developers, system and network administrators, and power users." The books are being released under the Open Publication License in electronic form (PDF) for general readership.
Here is a list of the books being offered:
- Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide, The
- Managing Linux Systems with Webmin: System Administration and Module Development
- Linux Development Platform, The
- Rapid Application Development with Mozilla
- Intrusion Detection with SNORT: Advanced IDS Techniques Using SNORT, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and ACID
- Implementing CIFS: The Common Internet File System
- Embedded Software Development with eCos
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Upcoming Books Include:
- Java Application Development with Linux, by Michael Schwarz and Carl Albing
- wxWindows Developer's Handbook, by Julian Smar
And, Abbie? Well, you know you can steal a copy of his book (but, I don't think it's open source licensing).
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