Re: Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly book)

Top Page
Attachments:
Message as email
+ (text/plain)
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Joshua Zeidner
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly book)
I don't doubt that there is some value there, but we tend to deflate
the collateral costs in terms of environment, and we also tend to
overvalue the credibility associated with publication. These problems
are fairly consistent across most disciplines.

-jmz

On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:47 PM, keith smith <> wrote:
>
> Could it be you feel this way because you already poses many skills.  These
> book may have value to someone new to the subject.  Is that possible?
>
> ------------------------
> Keith Smith
>
> --- On Mon, 5/4/09, Joshua Zeidner <> wrote:
>
> From: Joshua Zeidner <>
> Subject: Re: Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly book)
> To: "Main PLUG discussion list" <>
> Date: Monday, May 4, 2009, 7:23 PM
>
> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:02 PM, Craig White <> wrote:
>> I'm not sure why I am bothering with this but I do happen to own many
>> dead tree edition computer books including many O'Reilly books but truth
>> be told, they are decorating my office by residing on shelves instead of
>> my desk so I think your characterization is slightly too narrow.
>
>    fact is, those books barely equip you to pass a job interview let
> alone actually build software.  At this point, they act primarily as
> totems of technical knowledge and tend to help convince oblivious
> managers that someone is technically knowledgeable.  In general, the
> print world is in crisis because their value proposal is quickly being
> invalidated.  What O'Reilly has understood for some time is that what
> they are selling is hardly the concert (the technical content) and
> more the t-shirts.  The intent and sophistication of O'Reillys PR
> machine got quite a bit of exposure during the Web 2.0 trademark
> episode.  OTOH, the world is left with the issue of how to build
> content networks where innovation and authorship is compensated.
> Personally, I don't think that print will disappear altogether, but
> its general relevance will evaporate.
>
> -jmz
>
>>
>> It's also hard to ignore that O'Reilly actually has contributed stuff to
>> PLUG and has solicited the list for reviewers which makes me think that
>> the commentaries are overly harsh.
>>
>> Lastly, it is obvious that both Lisa and Joshua don't seem to care that
>> Gerald expressed a personal pride connection with this particular book
>> and I would like to ask Gerald what his connection was to "Linux in a
>> Nutshell?"
>>
>> Craig
>>
>> On Mon, 2009-05-04 at 18:39 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
>>> agreed.  O'reilly = lame.  The price of those books is hardly worth
>>> the information in them.  They're mainly used for decorating the desks
>>> of poser developers.
>>>
>>>   -jmz
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 6:34 PM, Lisa Kachold <>
>>> wrote:
>>> > Snore!
>>> >
>>> > Bored with the under publishing of technical books, and over blown
>>> > accolades
>>> > for the few available....
>>> >
>>> > O'Really now!
>>> > I own that book BTW (and the Unix in A Nutshell it was patterned afer
>>> > was
>>> > well used too) but I find the actual sources of each distribution more
>>> > useful (man, cat /proc/cpuinfo, ls, find) than that book, which is far
>>> > from
>>> > current or distro specific.
>>> >
>>> > big yawn with dreamy bleary eyes
>>> >
>>> > On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Gerald Thurman <>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Tim O'Reilly just tweeted this...
>>> >>
>>> >> Linux Journal Reader's Choice Awards: Linux in a Nutshell favorite
>>> >> Linux
>>> >> book of all time. I'm honored. http://bit.ly/hhTBH
>>> >>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
>> believed to be clean.
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list -
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list -
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list -
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>

---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss