Free: The Future of a Radical Price Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I read the original WIRED magazine article written by Mr. Anderson that this book is based on back in February 2008; I've been anxiously awaiting this book... and I've just finished it.
First off, I've implemented a few "freebies" in the past year that I give away in my line of work; the question was whether it would pay off. It did. I offered something of value (to me, and I believe to my customer) and waited to see if interest in the free item would increase sales of a companion item. Sales were there.
So many people are attacking the book for various reasons, but for me the key question for rating this book was "Is the author's information accurate and can it hold up to real-world results?" The answer is Yes.
A lot of things in the book aren't relevant to me, but I've taken what I can from it (in addition to the original article) and made some changes in how I do business. (I'm a small business owner, not a corporate giant.)
You can agree or disagree with the book's overall theme, but my findings are that the book has a solid grasp on how any business that has any Internet-related sales or support must adapt. The author's argument about how costs are moving to zero for the "bits" world is dead-on.
I find it humorous that so many negative reviews of the book are simply about the price of the book (or the lack of price for some of the free versions). The book is about the concept of Free. Some people are seeing "Free" on the cover and whining that it has a price???
The book isn't light reading - it's got some complicated concepts that the reader must grasp, especially business owners. For that reason, I could never listen to an audio version - I've highlighted my text at various points that I want to come back to and consider how I might use the info with my work.
I give the book 5 stars - I enjoyed it, it gave me much to think about, and I didn't feel (when done) that I'd been ripped off... the value of the information contained in the book is worth much more to me than the $20 I paid.


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Network Know-How: An Essential Guide for the Accidental Admin Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If I hired a new employee for my computer consulting business, I'd give them this to read. I'd HOPE that there was nothing in here they didn't already know, but I've seen supposedly knowledgeable people with tremendous knowledge gaps, so this would cover my bases.
Really it's more for the small business or home user. I can't tell you how many times I've had calls from very small businesses or home users who couldn't afford to pay me to help them with exactly the kinds of things this book covers. That's great, because too often I've felt sorry for them and helped for free: from now on I'll just tell them to get this book.
I was happy to see that the author did not ignore Linux and Mac OS X. I don't think he ignored much of anything: it's all here, from basic wiring to VPN's. No, it's not deep techy details, but it's more than enough to get you started and might just be all that you need. Best of all, it's completely non-threatening. You'd need to be very tech-phobic to feel frightened by this: the author explains things very gently, yet very completely.
I lead a little computer club here in our retirement community; I'm going to be waving this around at the next meeting and telling the people they want to get this. Very, very good.


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