Open Source Books

At 268 pages, this book is shorter than many programming books.

It describes developing for an open (jailbroken) iPhone. After the first edition sold out, this is the version with minor updates for the iPhone 2.x firmware. This book teaches you about the iPhone APIs used by the built-in Apple applications, but you should be aware that it does NOT target the Apple iPhone SDK, and does NOT guide you in developing apps for the AppStore, though the code will generally be applicable for AppStore applications.

It begins with a description of the process of jailbreaking, getting the compiler set up either on the Mac (hard) or the iPhone itself (trivial: http://soi.kd6.us/2008/09/27/so-i-made-my-iphone-say-hello-world/) and an introduction to Objective-C.

This book presents many complete example programs using the various iPhone UIKit controls, and presents information on Quartz (2d graphics) and the sound libraries.

It does not describe OpenGL ES (for high-performance/3D graphics) or web applications and APIs.

I found occasional editing errors - more than I'd expect in an O'Reilly Second Edition, ranging from typos (Quarts instead of Quartz) to old text describing an updated code example, to copy-and-paste errors between similar sections. Nothing too egregious, but distracting.

I list this book and other books that target the SDK in my Amazon Store: http://astore.amazon.com/iaw-20

This book is a good help to work with modems, the configuration and optimization is more simple using the instructions step by step. When I begun to read, understand more about how linux and the serial ports are working in the environment. I'll recommend this product if some person need to know more about this kind of devices.

This is not a how-to for programmers or computer users; thoise who are already familiar with open source software- applications and operating systems- will probably not find anything useful here. It's really aimed more at someone on the business side who's read about Linux, Open Office and similar apps, but is wondering if they really make sense in a business environment.

Landahl has done a good job of explaining the open source world, via examples and metaphors, in a way that makes sense to managers and business analysts. Coders looking to sell their managers on open source solutions might find this a good resource as well.

Three different domains - technology, law and business - intersect in the world of open source software and Meeker's book manages to address each of the three at an expert level while still synthesizing the larger issues relevant to everyone in the field. While the topic of open source has generated a flood of commentary, the type of careful and reasoned analysis offered in this book is in short supply and makes The Open Source Alternative stand apart from similar recent offerings. All that and it's very readable too!

This book provides a solid introduction to using open source software for ebusiness. The authors have a strong fundamental grasp of what ebusiness is, something that many so-called "ebusiness experts" fail at. They describe ebusiness as 5 interlocking categories: enterprise apps, internal and external integration, and business & consumer e-commerce. They then describe how open source software can be used in these categories.

The book is written for technical types, but really more for managers than developers. I'd like to have seen some code in this book, but nonetheless it did give me a good idea on where to begin looking and using open source software.

The chapters on integration and e-commerce are very good, with lots of details that many programmers would find useful. The authors also seem to have a good grasp of the state of open source and what types of decisions technical folks need to make when evaluating the software.

A good book if you want to find out what this whole open source and linux thing is and how to go about using it for your projects.

This overview of open source software implementation and management was a great resource for me as a business manager with a technical background who wanted to get a breadth of knowledge on the subject. This book is very comprehensive and contains very up to date information on architectures, design considerations, legal issues, business issues and the history of open source.

I initially tried to gather this type of information online and went through a number of resources and venues, but ultimately decided my time was to valuable and the information available to disparate not to find a good overview. If you are a business or technology manager who is making decisions about directions for your organization and considering open source solutions, this is a great overview of where things are at today.

The book includes a list of web resources regarding open source and for learning more over time. It also includes sample open source licenses to get exposure to the issues regarding licensing.

Very good stuff! Some of it is an almost word-for-word from the man pages, but hey how many ways can you say this stuff. It has helped me get further along with my web work.

Good Book but split between Mule and Service Mix does reduce its usefulness if you are just using one or the other. Good if you are evaluating one vs the other. Good examples and illustrations which I find very useful.

The free software or open source movement has, not surprisingly, garnered lots of free publicity. Encouraged by massive hyperventilating by its proponents. In contrast, this book steps back and offers a more dispassionate and nuanced analysis of the zeitgeist, for surely the movement deserves that label.

You get background as to the social motivations and the history of the movement. Which is shown to predate the Web and linux. GNU in the 1980s was all about alternatives to proprietary operating systems and compilers.

The book can help you dial down the hype. Yet, ultimately, it offers a broadly positive affirmation of the movement. There is shown to be no impediment or logical flaw to cause open source to not stop growing. Rather, the book suggests that both proprietary and open source software will always be with us, albeit in a sometimes uneasy coexistence.

Well, like it says, this book is exactly the same as the online 1.5.2 documentation (which you should be familiar with), just printed out. None of the information is new. If reading the documenation on screen is fine for you there is no reason to buy this book, but if like me, you find having to use up half your screen for a browser window is annoying, you'll find it useful. I gave it four stars because it's so cheap (sure beats printing it all out!)

Warning: this is a technical document, not a tutorial. If you're looking for a "Learn Python the E-Z way" sort of book you should look elsewhere.

Also, this book covers the core of Python - the built-in types and syntax - but _not_ the modules. Anything you have to import to use will not be in here...