Your feedback wanted! New eBook Hosting for PowerShell.org
After dealing with numerous problems from PenFlip (where our free ebooks are currently located), we’ve decided to try two new hosting providers: GitBook and LeanPub.
Both of these are, or can be, based on Git/GitHub, which means the Markdown text of the book will always be open-sourced and available. Both offer conversion into PDF, MOBI, and EPUB formats, so you can download whichever you want. Both enable us to update the books at any time. Both are relatively easy to use; GitBook provides a moderately better writing experience since they provide a native app that kind of hides the Git-i-ness, but it’s not a huge deal. More or less the same thing could be assembled for LeanPub if we wanted.
They do their formatting slightly differently, so it’s worth looking at each to see which you like better. We don’t have a ton of control over their formatting, so what you see in these tests is what you get.
LeanPub offers two key differences:
- While we can and will continue to make the books available for free, we can also suggest a purchase price, and then actually let readers set a purchase price. This would enable donations to DevOpsCollective.org.
- Readers who “buy” the book (even for free) can register to receive email updates when a new version is produced. This does mean you have to register using an e-mail address to download any book, even if you’re not paying for it. We know some people get twitchy about providing contact info.
We’re going to use one of these new solutions, and we’d like your feedback. Try them both, if you can - we’ve converted Creating HTML Reports in PowerShell over to both so that you can do a side-by-side comparison and see how they produce their various formats. Provide any feedback in the comments, below!
The LeanPub Version • The GitBook Version
**UPDATE: **At least two folks have found that they can’t access GitBook from their corporate network, which is concerning. Please indicate in the comments if that’s a problem for you, too.
**UPDATE: **We’re playing with GitHub. Both GitBook and LeanPub support it, and we’re thinking we may be able to publish to both locations automagically, so people can choose the one that they like best. It looks like LeanPub will only generate a “Preview” when we push to GitHub, and we have to go in and manually “Publish” that latest version, but there may be a way to automate that.
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The PowerShell Conference Book volume 3 is here!
The third edition of the PowerShell Conference Book is now available and on sale at the discounted price of $19.99. But you need to hurry because the discounted price is only available until Friday evening!
What is the PowerShell Conference Book?
The book is designed to be a representation of what it’s like when you attend a conference. Traditional books have a singular topic, such as “Windows Server 2019” or “Mastering Ansible”. But this book is not geared towards a single topic. Instead, much like a conference, it’s a collection of ideas all focused around a general theme. All the chapters are related in some way to PowerShell and DevOps.
The book contains over 20 different chapters, each written by a different author. The authors of the book are community members and subject matter experts who have graciously donated their time and knowledge for a good cause. Each chapter is similar in length and focus to what it would be like if you attended a conference and listened to the author present their topic to a live audience, except now it’s in written form. Imagine if you were able to capture those sessions and lock them into a format that you could refer to over and over again. It’s a conference in a book format!
PowerShell Conference Book Volume 3 Call For Authors
EDIT: We have extended the CFA to May 25th!
The _ PowerShell Conference Book Volume 3 _ Call for Authors (CFA) is now open!
The timeline for this process should be as follows:
Close submissions on Monday, May 4th, at 11:00 PM PDT
Notify everyone by May 25th
Final drafts will be due by June 1st
Finalize publication by September 30th
We are looking for one chapter per author on the topics of PowerShell, DevOps, WinOps, Open Source, or IT Careers. Topic depths can range from novice to expert. Chapters can be technical or cover cultural aspects. Authors can be new or well established. The book will be written in American English, but non-native speakers are welcome (our editorial team will support you)!
Book: "Shell of an Idea," the Untold History of PowerShell
I’ve launched a new book project, which I’m hoping you’ll support: Shell of an Idea, the Untold History of PowerShell is now available for pre-purchase at a $10 discount on Leanpub. You’ll get the initial introductory chapters right now, and when I start pumping out the main manuscript in April-May 2020, you’ll get that too. The price will rise to the final $30 after the first 100 preorders, so don’t delay too much if you want in on the deal.
This is a big project, and it’s involving a few flights up to Redmond for sit-down interviews with key folks - hence the pre-order, to help fund those trips. I’m going all the way back in time to the earliest days of PowerShell Monad Babylon Kermit, yeah it went through a lot of names and concepts! I plan to fill this not only with interesting facts, but also personal anecdotes from the folks who were there, and some back-of-house stories about the inevitable politics and challenges the shell saw on its path to life.
I’m also collecting personal anecdotes from people who’ve been impacted by PowerShell. I’d love to hear about life before PowerShell (how easy was automation back then, and how important was it to you?), how PowerShell changed your job or career, or anything like that. I’ll weave all of that into the book too, because the story of PowerShell is mainly the story of the people who made it and the people who adopted it.
Thanks for your support, and tell a friend!