Anyone here using O'Reilly Safari?

Howdy there guys and gals.

I have been looking on safari for quite some time, and after doing some math I figured out that it might be cheaper for me to sign up there rather then keep on buying books @ USD$30-$100 a piece.

But before I do sign up, I want to know if either of you have had personal experience with them and if they are as good as they seem. Also, I would like to hear recommendations on which plan it's best to signed up to and how point system really works (ssay 3 points for book, but is it per read/per month or what).

Any input is, as always, highly appreciated.

Hi,

one of my colleagues at work uses it. The scheme he's on is $9.95 a month, and that entitles him to have up to 5 different books in his account per month (once you've chosen your books for the month, that's it - you can't chop and change).

One thing I can say is that this is a great way of getting a preview of a subject - you might, for instance, think you want a book on one particular subject, but having had the chance to read through the book online, discover that you needed something on a completely different topic (or that there's a better book for you on that subject by someone other than O'Reilly).

The only (big, IMO) drawback to Safari is that they haven't published all of the books on there yet. For instance, I was having trouble with sendmail, decided I needed the book (or at least a preview of the book to make sure that I really needed it). I used the Safari account to have a look for said book, but it wasn't on there. Bummer.

I prefer having books over using online facilities, since you can cart them anywhere without fear of them being blown away in a strong breeze, or damaged by minor changes in weather. But that's down to the book vs. net debate again, which is an entirely different subject.

Having said that, for the price, it's certainly worth it, even if you do still periodically end up buying books.

Thanks for the input, liljim. This is a general direction I am thinking in - go online, read snippets and if it's worth it get hardcover copy. It's just that not so many of my collegues do this. Ehm, none, to be more precise. But then again they got more cash then me

*bump*

This looks interesting. O'reilly books are definitive IT resources, but they can get expensive. This seems like a rather cost-effective option for those who want access to all the books but don't have the budget to purchase all the one's they would like to read. The big disadvantage I see is that it doesn't look like you can download any of the books on your bookhelf for viewing offline. For example, it'd be great to download them to my PDA. Although, it looks like it could be a handy resource aside from just reading the books.

Anyway, here's a bump to see if we can get some more replies. I might try the 14-day free trial to see if I like it. If anyone else uses it, what do you think?

I used it for a while and really enjoyed it. I quit using it because I couldn't handle reading my books on a monitor all the time...I'd rather have a hard copy. If you want to use it to preview books then it would be a great choice.