Re: Writing free documentation/GNOME books

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel nuclecu unam mx>]

Tim said:

> That's going to be *tough.*  I think that free docs are a good
> thing, but they do generally make less money than proprietary
> ones, just as free software generates less money than proprietary
> software.  

So a couple of people have mailed me about this.  And their point is
that they are not always driven by money.  If they wanted to make
money they could do oracle/sap consulting and be filthy rich.

Many people publish technical books for a number of reasons:

     1. They want to help other people understand some bit of
        technology they are familiar with.
 
     2. It is good looking on the resume.

     3. They make some limited ammount of money.

     4. They want to make a technology adopted by other people.  They
        are convinced it is a good thing to have.

> I completely agree with RMS and with Miguel that it's important
> for free software to have good free documentation as well.  I
> just don't think that this means that all books about free
> software should also be free.

Remember where I am coming from:  The fact that my friends are doing
proprietary books and they are going to get peanuts.  Even in Mexico
they could make more money doing consulting.

I am not talking about making books for free software be open source.
Until authors get well payed, proprietary books is just a small
ammount of money.

When I learned one one of my friends was going to receive less money
for the book than some free-software organization was planning on
spending on authors I was shocked.

Now, that being said.  I like your idea that not everything that talks
about some free-software topic has to be free.

You mentioned before that authors at O'Reilly actuallly get better
pays.  This is an interesting data point.

Now, you have experience publishing an open-source book, Olaf's
book.  Would you be able to provide aproximate figures on how other
people publishing the book caused a monetary loss for your company?

I think there are many other things that can be done by people
publishing OpenSource books.  (Specially in the context of selling
"updates" on the book, given that people can contribute to it). 

> Think of a book as equivalent to the added level of configuration
> and polishing and packaging that goes into a boxed Linux
> distribution.  

Good point, but a bit ambiguous:

  So far, both Debian and Red Hat make all of that polishing and
  configuration free.  Caldera does not ship a fully open source
  distribution (I am talking here about their added value installation
  program, which is proprietary).

So which one do you mean?

Cheers,
Miguel.