
Show HN: DevFreeBooks – A collection of free books for developers - caiozo
https://devfreebooks.github.io
======
FT_intern
Am I the only one who dislikes these free resource type collections?

One, they present too many choices of dubious value. The most important part
of book recommendations is a vetting of a few resources that are guaranteed to
be enlightening.

Two, the monetary cost of a book isn't the largest "cost". The largest cost is
the time spent reading the book, which again means that the most value that
can be added is through the vetting of the contents of the book compared to
all other alternatives.

~~~
prawn
_" Two, the monetary cost of a book isn't the largest "cost"."_

Is that going to be true for all people around the world, regardless of
income? Sure it's probably true for you or I, but free learning resources are
likely to be vital for many others.

~~~
sweetjesus
I don't think PP worded his point as clearly as he could but I think he meant
something more along the lines of "a small list of free books that is vetted
for quality is much more valuable than a big list of many more free books that
includes duds". There is an intersection between that point and the point you
made/and responded to which is, "some books (and therefore vettings) are so
valuable they might be worth paying for over a less good free alternative" ...
of course weighted for the amount of disposable income a person might have.

------
rwd
[https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books](https://github.com/vhf/free-
programming-books) is always worth a look.

~~~
b_bellomo
Actually that project has much more content, and it seems that the collection
is curated a little.

~~~
caiozo
That's why I built DevFreeBooks, to curate more the free books, instead only
add any link without know if is a good or not content.

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ramadis
These are awesome for JS: [https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-
JS](https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS)

~~~
caiozo
added!

------
bimmer44
This is a useful resource - thanks for compiling it.

I'd suggest allowing users to submit short reviews of each ebook. I'd imagine
it would be useful to have some insight as to which book would be most helpful
for different circumstances - especially once you start to get some more
submissions and there are more books per category.

~~~
Jugurtha
Similar to this
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/3gu/the_best_textbooks_on_every_subj...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/3gu/the_best_textbooks_on_every_subject/)

From the link, here's a quote:

> _There have been other pages of recommended reading on Less Wrong before
> (and elsewhere), but this post is unique. Here are the rules:

\- Post the title of your favorite textbook on a given subject.

\- You must have read at least two other textbooks on that same subject.

\- You must briefly name the other books you've read on the subject and
explain why you think your chosen textbook is superior to them._

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gluejar
Is there any reason to to this without cooperation with
[https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books](https://github.com/vhf/free-
programming-books) which already has over 4K commits and 16K forks?

~~~
jlarocco
I agree they should cooperate, but I'm curious about the 16k forks.

What's the point in forking a project like this? Adding changes and submitting
pull requests would be the obvious thing, but that doesn't seem to be the case
because there are only 4K commits and less than 30 open pull requests. So
anybody know what's up with all the forks?

~~~
fapjacks
I'm guessing the forks are a form of bookmarking. At least for my part, I fork
every single repository that might even be slightly interesting for me in the
future. Hell, I even fork repos that I explicitly hate, just so I can keep
tabs on them or learn more about them.

~~~
jlarocco
I guess bookmarking would explain it, but seems like the wrong tool for the
job IMO. Forking means you have to do extra work to get the latest version of
the code, even if you're not making any local changes. Using the "watch" or
"star" feature or an actual bookmark means you'll always go straight to the
most up to date version.

> Hell, I even fork repos that I explicitly hate, just so I can keep tabs on
> them or learn more about them.

I don't know what it means to "hate" a repo, but whatever it means, forking
the repo actually means you _won 't_ be keeping tabs on them because your
personal fork will have no activity until you pull from the original. And if
you need to go to the original to get updates, why not just go straight there?

~~~
fapjacks
You don't get it, sorry. Not in a mean way. I just like to learn about things
I do not like, because sometimes I change my mind. Forking a repo means
cloning it to my local network because of some automation I have, and I learn
applications by playing with code.

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caiozo
Hi guys! Thank you for enjoying my little project! Please to add new books
just follow this instruction
([https://github.com/devfreebooks/devfreebooks.github.io#how-t...](https://github.com/devfreebooks/devfreebooks.github.io#how-
to-add-books)). This is a old project which I'm reviving it, so there are some
old ebooks which I will remove or update links soon. Thanks!

------
akerro
FireFox OS is a dead project and can be safely removed from the list.

~~~
caiozo
All firefoxOS was removed minutes ago, thanks for the feedback!

~~~
thefastlane
for those interested, here are the links to the books that were removed:

[https://leanpub.com/firefoxosinaction](https://leanpub.com/firefoxosinaction)

[https://leanpub.com/quickguidefirefoxosdevelopment](https://leanpub.com/quickguidefirefoxosdevelopment)

[https://leanpub.com/buildinggamesforfirefoxos](https://leanpub.com/buildinggamesforfirefoxos)

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Feuilles_Mortes
Love this idea :).

I would suggest making submitting a book easier through an online form,
though. The process of forking, editing a raw JSON file, and submitting a pull
request seems a little primitive, and has a high cost to those who want to
contribute.

Thank you for your time and energy making this resource!

~~~
throwaway1892
Perhaps the barrier to contribution aims to act as a filter against poor/troll
contributions.

Also the necessary skills to submit a book overlap a lot with the skills of
the people who might be interested.

~~~
ainiriand
Really interesting to reflect on the fact that a lower barrier of entry is not
always equal to a better choice. There could be a lot of philosophy around
this subject, leading us to: should voting be constrained by technology or
knowledge of some sort? Is the action motivated by knowledge better to the
uninformed one? Sorry for all this off-topic but it is kinda related. I would
really love to hear your opinions on this, thanks.

~~~
burkaman
No. If unreasonable limits are put on voting, people will find other, more
destructive ways to "vote". Every government is eventually a democracy, in the
sense that if you rule against your citizens' wishes for long enough and they
aren't allowed to vote, they will try to kill you or overthrow you. It just
isn't very practical to rule without the consent of the governed.

> Is the action motivated by knowledge better to the uninformed one?

Well yes, obviously, but it's better to try to force people to be informed
than to ignore them. As you may have noticed, people don't like being ignored.

~~~
ainiriand
And what would happen if the ones in power are the first interested in having
misinformed population so achieving power is easier for them in the end?

------
caiozo
A lot of users using DevFreeBooks, thank you guys!
[https://twitter.com/crp_underground/status/79643077435434188...](https://twitter.com/crp_underground/status/796430774354341888)

------
darfs
I found in a quick google search: [https://tfetimes.com/free-c-
books/](https://tfetimes.com/free-c-books/)

Maybe it's something for a DMCA takedown, but it doesnt look like the average
pirating website(i surely dont know how they look like, was never on one, i
swear!)

EDIT: Please elaborate why that get downvoted. I seriously dont know. I could
understand, if it gets FLAGGED, but... it didn't.

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oolongCat
Whenever I need to find resources for anything programming related I google

"awesome WHAT_I_NEED"

find the awesome git repo and follow the links,

if I find anything interesting I search for the link on hn and reddit and try
to see if there are any discussions based on the link.

profit??

------
UltimateFloofy
Should probably remove famo.us as a resource. They've rebranded a little while
ago.

~~~
caiozo
I removed minutes ago, thank you for the feedback!

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Artoemius
Great resource! I hope it grows to be a huge collection indeed. Also I hope
it'll manage to avoid all the potential legal problems when people (knowingly
or unknowingly) start submitting books that are not actually freeware.

~~~
caiozo
That's the idea! Grow the list only with free books (piracy won't be
accepted).

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tedmiston
Direct link to the repo if you also want to star it.

[https://github.com/devfreebooks/devfreebooks.github.io](https://github.com/devfreebooks/devfreebooks.github.io)

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Wheaties466
looks like getting started with django isn't a thing anymore

~~~
caiozo
This link was fixed minutes ago! Thanks for the report!

~~~
Wheaties466
[http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/en/lessons/introduction-...](http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/en/lessons/introduction-
and-
launch/?utm_source=devfreebooks&utm_medium=medium&utm_campaign=DevFreeBooks)

doesn't appear to resolve.

------
mohsinr
First/Second book in nodejs link broken for: Learn to Create Node.js
Applications from Scratch

~~~
caiozo
Thank you for the feedback!

------
ainiriand
Could be great to add 'Share by email', with the book directly attached.

~~~
caiozo
Cool idea! I will look for a snippet code to add the email share, thanks!

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lyut
Nice resource, any reason it's missing C++ books?

~~~
caiozo
Feel free to add all free C++ books you have :)

~~~
caiozo
Now you can submit into this form:
[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXsmlLo3S7lJF82LGT...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXsmlLo3S7lJF82LGTOMoMpA4vg_T38Ez47gQoU6P6KaFwQg/viewform)

------
thenormal
Not really a collection, but agregator

