One might argue that authors have fewer incentives
to write good textbooks if the expectation is that
they should be made available for free.
One way around this is advertizement financing;
and if you download [our] micro textbook, you'll
see that its full of ads targeted at students!
This a small price to pay for the zero sale price,
but the book itself is not the highest quality.
Nonetheless, it is a useful reference.
Why's it's not technically what most people would consider a 'textbook,' I'm surprised Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby isn't there. I would recommend it to anyone interested in a solid (yet quirky) introduction to Ruby. It's license is CC-Share-Alike, so it clearly fits under the category of 'free.'
My Physics professor* uses one of the textbooks listed there. It's a very entertaining book, well outlined, informative and teaches in a way that inspires you to look at our physical world rather than "plus number into formula to receive answer."
And the free price tag is highly welcome.
*I'm taking 1st year remedial physics because it's been too long and my previous credits no longer count etc.
I have a moderate hatred for most entry-level physics textbooks, which manage to pad about 100 pages' worth of information into a thousand-page tome full of glossy photographs in order to justify the $100+ price tag. So if there are any good free texts that would be great.
Since I had a look at a couple of them, I suppose I might as well provide reviews.
"Introduction to Proofs and the Mathematical Vernacular" -- this is actually pretty good, and I kinda wish I'd had a copy of it at the start of my university mathematical education, if only to teach me what the hell a "Lemma" was, exactly. It's also fun to read.
"21st Century Physics Flexbook" -- very odd. Admittedly intended as a K-12 textbook rather than a university-level textbook, but not much of a way to learn physics even for the kids. Virtually no mathematics whatsoever, let alone calculus. A random grab-bag of topics from "gravitation" (with an attempt to explain relativity which would be more confusing than enlightening) to "nanoscience" and "biomedical imaging". Basic mechanics finally comes in at the end as an afterthought. Not recommended to anyone.
It opens with a chapter full of concrete stuff -- patterns and symmetries -- that's obviously useful in a lot of different fields.
It draws a bright line between the important results and the extra stuff you wind up knowing as a byproduct of working through the extension problems. (I'm looking at you, Artin.)
Incidentally, I already had eight of these books in my reading list. Of those eight, I have read three cover to cover. They were really good. One percent is not a sufficient sample size, but I have high hopes for the remaining 361 titles.
Are these copyright free textbooks? I am curious to how this free textbook thing works. There are so many free textbook projects going around the world. Can anyone use the content, reference the content and use it for commercial purpose?
Yes, the GNU FDL was what Wikipedia was (and mostly is) licenced under.
They've shifted to a Creative Commons licence that achieves much the same thing because the GNU FDL has some awkward requirements from it's history as a software documentation licence from the pre-web era.
