1) Who the hell writes all these books?
2) Does anyone actually read all of them?
A bunch of them seem to describe technologies for which I have no idea how one manages to write an entire book about or why anyone would read an entire book about them.
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I don't think most of them are meant to be read cover to cover.
1) I imagine it's similar to those "for dummies" series books e.g. any random asshole can get a franchise license and write a book
2) probably just use them for reference material in your professional library / BoK.
As for the last part, they wouldn't make them if they didn't think it would sell (unless printing was funded by the author, which is usually not the case since it's really fucking expensive to do a bulk run of book printing)
I read books like these (about networking mostly and pirated ofc) before going to bed. Relaxing and interesting.
Pic related is what I'm reading right now.
why is sendmail so fucking huge?
>1) Who the hell writes all these books?
authors
>2) Does anyone actually read all of them?
only the ones they need. it's not harry potter, people don't pick up "DNS and BIND" and progress through "Lucene in Action"
I've read like 8 books in that picture.
Some stuff has really shitty internet resources like OpenGL and having a book is pretty comfy
I also keep my maths textbooks, because wikipedia a shit for looking up math stuff and I'm too dumb to understand a 5 slide summary from some university, I need someone to spoon feed me
So many glorious books. And the way they're lined up by color makes my OCD happy.
>Learning GNU Emacs
Is that only Volume I?
>even the "Running Linux" book is smaller
There are learning books and reference books there.
Learning books are written to be read cover to cover with a progression of concepts and depth. These books are for people who know little or nothing the title.
Reference books are there to be flipped through for specific pieces of info about certain topics. These assume the reader has at least basic knowledge of the subject matter.
>wikipedia a shit for looking up math stuff
This.
You almost always come out knowing less than what you started with when looking up math at wikipedia.
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>Who the hell writes all these books?
The author's/authors' name/names are on the front of each book. The books are likely commissioned by the publisher based on what they think will sell well enough to turn a profit.
>Does anyone actually read all of them?
Most people read only the books whose subject relevant to their needs or interest. Most likely their market is students/professionals and hobbyists.
Pretty interesting reading, actually.
Forgot link:
>cisco
>security
anything in that book about checking your rommon for tampering?
>inb4 nope
>OPM
>muh firewall by cisco
>mfw I read that as "firewall by costco"
That's an entirely different kind of firewall right there.
What I want to know is, how do they decide what image/animal to use for the cover art?
I think its just meant to trick people half way into tech out of their money.
I have their python book its pretty good but its more then half reference book. I tried reading it straight through and its murder. The first part of the book is repeated by the second part of the book with the actual detail the first half missed.
Super easy money. Imagine writing horse shit about some computer programs for dummies
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Not yet, but I'm not even half through.
I've read several of them that are really good. Learning the Korn Shell was my original entry point for learning UNIX. I've probably purchased 20 copies of it over the years for classes I've taught on shell scripting.
There's a reference section where they just printed out the man pages.
Oreilly started as a Unix publishing company for printed man pages back when hard drives were too small to store documentation.
>Building Oracle XML Applications
I don't know who I feel more sorry for, the guy who wrote that or the poor bastards that need to read it
1) Are you mentally retarded
2) Are you a fucking idiot?