7 ms·

Freecomputerbooks.com

228 points by lpmay 4y ago

asicsp 4y ago
See also: * https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/books/free-programming-books-langs.html https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/boo... * https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/books/free-programming-books-subjects.html https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/boo...
bdg 4y ago
Whenever sites like this pop up, the really valuable thing to me is finding a book that's a synthesis of two topics. I can find many specific books with code examples here for things like financial maths, portfolio management, etc.
meigwilym 4y ago
> In other words, this site DOES NOT contain any actual content of the books or lecture notes listed in this site. > Therefore, this website is as legal as search results of any search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. It's worth pointing out that this site may link to copyrighted material.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Worth mentioning that usually you don't end up in legal troubles for consuming copyrighted material but for reproducing/sharing copyrighted material, and often not until you do so at scale.
  - Cyberdog 4y ago
    "Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.
    - lostgame 4y ago
      People “usually don’t” get arrested for possession of a small amount of cocaine; but I sure wouldn’t want to be one of those obscure cases. I agree ‘usually’ is almost never good enough when personal risk is involved.
    - rocketbop 4y ago
      Is there actually? In Germany I have heard of people getting served with fines for downloading torrents, as sharing a torrent identifies you through your IP. I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble for streaming or downloading a file, and I'm not sure how it could realistically be detected.
      - candiodari 4y ago
        I'm not sure I should point this out, but there are organisations (Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google) that have obvious access to this information. It could be subpoenaed from them.
      - Bewelge 4y ago
        A couple of years ago the European court of justice actually decided that streaming itself is already illegal. That is, if it's reasonable to assume that you knew it was an illegal stream. I haven't heard about a case of it ever being prosecuted though.
      - toyg 4y ago
        It's not about detection, it's about legality. Bittorrent is legally clear-cut, because the sharing part is a clear copyright infringement (you are distributing the work without authorization). Streaming (typically) isn't that clear, because consuming the work is technically not forbidden by copyright law in most countries. It's a bit like reading a book in a bookshop without buying it. Detection is fairly easy in both cases, they just cannot go after consumers.
        rocketbop 4y ago
        > It's not about detection, it's about legality. I suppose I'm wondering about the realistic ability to detect and ability to prosecute. I'm not really concerned with legality for legality's sake.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    > often not until you do so at scale That’s the funny thing about downloading copyrighted works with BitTorrent in Germany, it automatically counts as "at scale" for the courts because you’ll have many peers that all download a bit from you.
- weberer 4y ago
  >This site neither supports copyright infringement, nor links to web sites that trade copyrighted material. If you find any questionable links on this web site, please contact the webmaster (see the contact info at the bottom).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
falcor84 4y ago
There's also freetechbooks.com , which is a database of links to actually Freely available / Open Access books , which includes the license information.
teddyh 4y ago
See also: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computer_science https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computer_science
opnitro 4y ago
Seeing Data-Centric Introduction to Computing (https://dcic-world.org https://dcic-world.org) It's written by Shriram Krishnamurthi, who is a really interesting researcher who cares quite a lot about CS education.
- memling 4y ago
  He also wrote a great intro to generating finite automata using Scheme macros.[0] It carries you through step by step and motivates the work well. [0] http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/sk-automata-macros/paper.pdf http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/sk-aut...
PerryTheWIzz 4y ago
Is there any comparable resource that also (explicitly) includes copyrighted material? I believe a curated list containing the "cream of the crop" of a specific domain would be an excellent resource for anyone starting out.
- weberer 4y ago
  You might want the O'Reilly library subscription. It's $50 per month, and all the books are high quality.
b800h 4y ago
If this is just a link to a bunch of PDFs, then presumably PDF malware is an issue here. I would have thought computer books would be a fine vector to choose if you were trying to compromise websites and business systems.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Use a in-browser PDF renderer, such as mozilla/pdf.js which Firefox uses, and the true and tested browser sandbox will most likely be very helpful. Obviously, not helpful against three-letter agencies who like to sit on browser zero-days until they need to use them, but against most threats you'll be fine.
  - yyyk 4y ago
    PDF readers are a far more diverse bunch than browsers. It's much less likely someone has a simultaneous break on Adobe Reader/Foxit/okular/evince/xpdf/mupdf/etc. than on merely two browser engines (Chrome and Firefox).
- b0afc375b5 4y ago
  Whenever I download untrusted pdfs I always upload them to virustotal. Does that help at all and if so, is it sufficient enough?
  - bmacho 4y ago
    Is pdf dangerous? I guess on linux canonical distributes latest, free-of-known-vulnerables evince, what about windows? One must upload every file?
    - codetrotter 4y ago
      There has been a case of confirmed code execution vulnerability in Evince in the past, in 2017: * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000083/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000083/ As well as possible code execution vulnerabilities in Evince, in 2019 and 2011: * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2019-1010006/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2019-1010006/ * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-5244/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-5244/ * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-0433/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-0433/ They have also had a command injection vulnerability, in 2017: * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000159/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000159/ These and other reported security vulnerabilities for Evince are listed here: * https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-283/product_id-23592/Gnome-Evince.html https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-283/... I think in the case of all software it is safest to assume that opening a file that you downloaded from the internet has the potential to do harm, regardless of whether you are using Linux, macOS, Windows, or some other operating system, and regardless of what software you use to read the file. The best mitigation would be to keep a separate device that you use purely for unauthenticated internet browsing and opening files from the Internet. Never accessing any personal data on that device. In reality almost all of us will use the same devices for our personal files and data, and for browsing the internet and opening random files that we downloaded. It is interesting to note that the statistics for known security vulnerabilities in Evince.. * https://www.cvedetails.com/product/23592/Gnome-Evince.html?vendor_id=283 https://www.cvedetails.com/product/23592/Gnome-Evince.html?v... ..pales in comparison to the statistics for known security vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader: * https://www.cvedetails.com/product/497/Adobe-Acrobat-Reader.html?vendor_id=53 https://www.cvedetails.com/product/497/Adobe-Acrobat-Reader.... I wonder if it indicates that Evince is so much more secure than Acrobat Reader.. Or is it simply the case that Evince has not been subject to the level of scrutiny that Acrobat Reader has been? And if so, there might be more unknown security vulnerabilities lurking under the surface of Evince than in Acrobat Reader.
lr1970 4y ago
I checked the OP link. Clicking on any category pops up an ad that needs to be explicitly "closed". It happens again and again as you navigate through the site. Annoying like hell.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- agileAlligator 4y ago
  1. You browse the web without an adblocker in $currentYear? 2. I turned off my adblocker and checked, it's not fair to call it a "pop-up", it's more like it slides up from the bottom of the screen whenever you load a new page.
Ptchd 4y ago
See this for 24TB of books: http://pilimi.org/zlib-downloads.html http://pilimi.org/zlib-downloads.html
- underlines 4y ago
  libgen is currently 32TB and need some seeding help https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Library_Genesis https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Library_Genesis
  - Ptchd 4y ago
    Libgen is great too. I wonder if the 32TB includes most of what is in the 24TB though
andai 4y ago
What a cool website. Quite surreal to see fresh content presented in a mid-2000s style!
underlines 4y ago
I prefer libgen for free computer books :)
D4ckard 4y ago
Content littered with ads can not be considered free. The difference from traditionally paid content is that customers pay with their attention and virtual purchasing power instead of spending money directly. Nonetheless ads obviously allow access for all.

228 points by lpmay 4y ago

See also: * https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/books/free-programming-books-langs.html https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/boo... * https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/books/free-programming-books-subjects.html https://ebookfoundation.github.io/free-programming-books/boo...

bdg 4y ago

Whenever sites like this pop up, the really valuable thing to me is finding a book that's a synthesis of two topics. I can find many specific books with code examples here for things like financial maths, portfolio management, etc.

meigwilym 4y ago

> In other words, this site DOES NOT contain any actual content of the books or lecture notes listed in this site. > Therefore, this website is as legal as search results of any search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. It's worth pointing out that this site may link to copyrighted material.

capableweb 4y ago
Worth mentioning that usually you don't end up in legal troubles for consuming copyrighted material but for reproducing/sharing copyrighted material, and often not until you do so at scale.
- Cyberdog 4y ago
  "Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.
  - lostgame 4y ago
    People “usually don’t” get arrested for possession of a small amount of cocaine; but I sure wouldn’t want to be one of those obscure cases. I agree ‘usually’ is almost never good enough when personal risk is involved.
  - rocketbop 4y ago
    Is there actually? In Germany I have heard of people getting served with fines for downloading torrents, as sharing a torrent identifies you through your IP. I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble for streaming or downloading a file, and I'm not sure how it could realistically be detected.
    - candiodari 4y ago
      I'm not sure I should point this out, but there are organisations (Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google) that have obvious access to this information. It could be subpoenaed from them.
    - Bewelge 4y ago
      A couple of years ago the European court of justice actually decided that streaming itself is already illegal. That is, if it's reasonable to assume that you knew it was an illegal stream. I haven't heard about a case of it ever being prosecuted though.
    - toyg 4y ago
      It's not about detection, it's about legality. Bittorrent is legally clear-cut, because the sharing part is a clear copyright infringement (you are distributing the work without authorization). Streaming (typically) isn't that clear, because consuming the work is technically not forbidden by copyright law in most countries. It's a bit like reading a book in a bookshop without buying it. Detection is fairly easy in both cases, they just cannot go after consumers.
      - rocketbop 4y ago
        > It's not about detection, it's about legality. I suppose I'm wondering about the realistic ability to detect and ability to prosecute. I'm not really concerned with legality for legality's sake.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  > often not until you do so at scale That’s the funny thing about downloading copyrighted works with BitTorrent in Germany, it automatically counts as "at scale" for the courts because you’ll have many peers that all download a bit from you.
weberer 4y ago
>This site neither supports copyright infringement, nor links to web sites that trade copyrighted material. If you find any questionable links on this web site, please contact the webmaster (see the contact info at the bottom).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

falcor84 4y ago

There's also freetechbooks.com , which is a database of links to actually Freely available / Open Access books , which includes the license information.

teddyh 4y ago

See also: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computer_science https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computer_science

opnitro 4y ago

Seeing Data-Centric Introduction to Computing (https://dcic-world.org https://dcic-world.org) It's written by Shriram Krishnamurthi, who is a really interesting researcher who cares quite a lot about CS education.

memling 4y ago
He also wrote a great intro to generating finite automata using Scheme macros.[0] It carries you through step by step and motivates the work well. [0] http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/sk-automata-macros/paper.pdf http://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Publications/Papers/Published/sk-aut...

PerryTheWIzz 4y ago

Is there any comparable resource that also (explicitly) includes copyrighted material? I believe a curated list containing the "cream of the crop" of a specific domain would be an excellent resource for anyone starting out.

weberer 4y ago
You might want the O'Reilly library subscription. It's $50 per month, and all the books are high quality.

b800h 4y ago

If this is just a link to a bunch of PDFs, then presumably PDF malware is an issue here. I would have thought computer books would be a fine vector to choose if you were trying to compromise websites and business systems.

capableweb 4y ago
Use a in-browser PDF renderer, such as mozilla/pdf.js which Firefox uses, and the true and tested browser sandbox will most likely be very helpful. Obviously, not helpful against three-letter agencies who like to sit on browser zero-days until they need to use them, but against most threats you'll be fine.
- yyyk 4y ago
  PDF readers are a far more diverse bunch than browsers. It's much less likely someone has a simultaneous break on Adobe Reader/Foxit/okular/evince/xpdf/mupdf/etc. than on merely two browser engines (Chrome and Firefox).
b0afc375b5 4y ago
Whenever I download untrusted pdfs I always upload them to virustotal. Does that help at all and if so, is it sufficient enough?
- bmacho 4y ago
  Is pdf dangerous? I guess on linux canonical distributes latest, free-of-known-vulnerables evince, what about windows? One must upload every file?
  - codetrotter 4y ago
    There has been a case of confirmed code execution vulnerability in Evince in the past, in 2017: * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000083/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000083/ As well as possible code execution vulnerabilities in Evince, in 2019 and 2011: * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2019-1010006/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2019-1010006/ * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-5244/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-5244/ * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-0433/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-0433/ They have also had a command injection vulnerability, in 2017: * https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000159/ https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-1000159/ These and other reported security vulnerabilities for Evince are listed here: * https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-283/product_id-23592/Gnome-Evince.html https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-283/... I think in the case of all software it is safest to assume that opening a file that you downloaded from the internet has the potential to do harm, regardless of whether you are using Linux, macOS, Windows, or some other operating system, and regardless of what software you use to read the file. The best mitigation would be to keep a separate device that you use purely for unauthenticated internet browsing and opening files from the Internet. Never accessing any personal data on that device. In reality almost all of us will use the same devices for our personal files and data, and for browsing the internet and opening random files that we downloaded. It is interesting to note that the statistics for known security vulnerabilities in Evince.. * https://www.cvedetails.com/product/23592/Gnome-Evince.html?vendor_id=283 https://www.cvedetails.com/product/23592/Gnome-Evince.html?v... ..pales in comparison to the statistics for known security vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader: * https://www.cvedetails.com/product/497/Adobe-Acrobat-Reader.html?vendor_id=53 https://www.cvedetails.com/product/497/Adobe-Acrobat-Reader.... I wonder if it indicates that Evince is so much more secure than Acrobat Reader.. Or is it simply the case that Evince has not been subject to the level of scrutiny that Acrobat Reader has been? And if so, there might be more unknown security vulnerabilities lurking under the surface of Evince than in Acrobat Reader.

lr1970 4y ago

I checked the OP link. Clicking on any category pops up an ad that needs to be explicitly "closed". It happens again and again as you navigate through the site. Annoying like hell.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
agileAlligator 4y ago
1. You browse the web without an adblocker in $currentYear? 2. I turned off my adblocker and checked, it's not fair to call it a "pop-up", it's more like it slides up from the bottom of the screen whenever you load a new page.

Ptchd 4y ago

See this for 24TB of books: http://pilimi.org/zlib-downloads.html http://pilimi.org/zlib-downloads.html

underlines 4y ago
libgen is currently 32TB and need some seeding help https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Library_Genesis https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Library_Genesis
- Ptchd 4y ago
  Libgen is great too. I wonder if the 32TB includes most of what is in the 24TB though

andai 4y ago

What a cool website. Quite surreal to see fresh content presented in a mid-2000s style!

underlines 4y ago

I prefer libgen for free computer books :)

D4ckard 4y ago

Content littered with ads can not be considered free. The difference from traditionally paid content is that customers pay with their attention and virtual purchasing power instead of spending money directly. Nonetheless ads obviously allow access for all.