Safari Online

cgrimaldo

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this site. I know a few of you do but, I was wondering who else did. Here is the link: http://safari.oreilly.com/

I am thinking about subscribing because of the resources you would have available to you. I would like to be able to research multiple books while I'm studying for my certs as well as taking my I/A courses at school. Although I could focus on a "proven" few of books that you all recommend it would be nice to be able to use all the resources the site has to offer.

What does everyone think?

JDMurray

I've been a Safari user since it was in beta (2000 or 2001?). It's certainly easy to search through books that are online, and you can print them out too. There are also books from a lot of other publishers on there. I see that Safari Library has instructional videos now too. The price is steep for the casual reader, but if you really need access to a lot of IT and programming books it's well worth the money.

cgrimaldo

JDMurray wrote:

I've been a Safari user since it was in beta (2000 or 2001?). It's certainly easy to search through books that are online, and you can print them out too. There are also books from a lot of other publishers on there. I see that Safari Library has instructional videos now too. The price is steep for the casual reader, but if you really need access to a lot of IT and programming books it's well worth the money.

So you can print them out? Thats awesome. I wonder why they would limit access as far as downloading chapters when you can just print them out. I'm definately not the casual reader but it is steep. I do know that I will be tons of reading and I'm sure it will offer me tons of alternatives to the books I'll be using to study for my certs and for my security classes at school. I think I'll be signing up this weekend. Thank you for your reply!

jkstech

I got a free trial subscription after taking my last test...I like it

however I have a paid subscription to books24x7 and I love it as well, when trying to choose between the two, I went with books247.com because they had the whole series of official study guides for the CWNP program which I plan to take in the future

safari has the official cisco books though, which I also plan to take.....

my job paid for it, I decided on books24x7, I may get a safari subscription for myself.....


both are good, safari does have videos which books24x7 does not

JDMurray

cgrimaldo wrote:

So you can print them out? Thats awesome. I wonder why they would limit access as far as downloading chapters when you can just print them out.

The printing is not like having the complete book as a PDF, but it's good enough for reference.

There are actually two Safaris: Safari Library and Safari Bookshelf. Check out the Safari subscription pricing page for the difference in capabilities between these two services.

cgrimaldo

JDMurray wrote:

cgrimaldo wrote:

So you can print them out? Thats awesome. I wonder why they would limit access as far as downloading chapters when you can just print them out.

The printing is not like having the complete book as a PDF, but it's good enough for reference.

There are actually two Safaris: Safari Library and Safari Bookshelf. Check out the Safari subscription pricing page for the difference in capabilities between these two services.

I see. Having a pdf is obviously better than printing out page by page. I also did look up both. I intend on getting the library. They are having a special on it right now

Darthn3ss

safari is nice, but they've jacked the prices up alot. it hink it used to be like $10 a month a few years ago.

cgrimaldo

^^^Wow big difference. But, I'm sure price has gone up relative to what they offer you.

JDMurray

Darthn3ss wrote:

safari is nice, but they've jacked the prices up alot. it hink it used to be like $10 a month a few years ago.

True, but a few years ago Safari didn't offer half the merchandise that they do now. Safari is marketed to IT professionals and not casual home computer users.

keatron

I've been a heavy user for the last 2 years. It's certainly cheaper than buying individual books (if you read often), however I still spend an average of $300/month on in borders/barnes&noble/BAM. Some books you just can't get on Safari. But if I didn't use Safari, I'd probably spend closer to a 700/month.

Ahriakin

I've been using it for about 18 months now, just the 10 slot subscription until work finally starts paying for the full thing. I think it's great though it takes a bit of getting used to repying on ebook style. It's single biggest advantage to me over purchasing (though I still do that for the more important ones) is that you are more likely to use multiple sources, it's much easier when the only extra cost involved is a slot you are paying for anyway.
My one grip is not the sub cost but the fact that so many books are 2 slots nowadays. I think simply boosting the subscription cost would be a wee bit more honest.