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The winner of the auction receives a signed copy of "Absolute FreeBSD" hot off the press and a Certificate of Authenticity. In fact, Michael W. Lucas, the book's author, plans to pick up the book from the printer himself. The ongoing auction ( http://snipurl.com/1so1c ) runs through November 2, 2007. The FreeBSD Foundation is using eBay's charitable MissionFish service to provide this auction at a reduced rate.
How can the winner be assured that the book they receive will, in fact, be the first copy off the press? "Well," said No Starch Press Founder Bill Pollock, "it may not be the absolute first copy off the press because very first copies are often trashed because of problems. However, our printer, Malloy Incorporated of Ann Arbor, Michigan, will pull the first good copy off the press and set it aside for this purpose."
No Starch Press is no stranger to supporting non-profits in the tech community. Several times every year, No Starch donates books to hacking groups and conferences worldwide (like Defcon, Toorcon, Chaos Communications Congress, and Hack.lu) as well as to other technical conferences and numerous user groups. And, in an effort to make the world a safer place for hackers, for the past five years every No Starch Press title has carried an advertisement soliciting donations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a donor-funded nonprofit dedicated to defending our digital rights.
"We are excited to kick-off our fall fundraising campaign by auctioning off this phenomenal guide to FreeBSD," said Deb Goodkin, The FreeBSD Foundation Director of Operations. "We are fortunate that Michael, who is one of the leading experts in FreeBSD, and No Starch Press have generously volunteered their time and effort to help us raise funds to support the FreeBSD Project and Community."
The auction itself is the brainchild of author Michael W. Lucas. Why would an author put so much effort into helping a foundation? After all, wouldn't Lucas want to keep that first copy himself?
As it turns out, this isn't just any foundation. This is The FreeBSD Foundation. As Lucas sees it, "The Foundation does a lot of good work for the FreeBSD community. I wanted to not only help the Foundation, but help encourage others to give to the Foundation. The first book off the press is normally something I'd treasure myself, but the Foundation can get much more good out of it than I could. I hope that those who bid on the book but don't win will consider donating to the Foundation.”
All proceeds from the sale of the first copy of "Absolute FreeBSD" will go to The FreeBSD Foundation.
Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition
The Complete Guide to FreeBSD
by Michael W. Lucas
November 2007, 736 pp., $59.95
ISBN 978-1-59327-151-0
http://www.nostarch.com/abs_bsd2.htm
Available in fine bookstores everywhere, from http://www.oreilly.com/nostarch , or directly from No Starch Press ( http://www.nostarch.com , , 800.420.7240).
FreeBSD is a complete, advanced, Unix-like operating system which can be used as a secure and high-performance workstation, network server, or firewall. FreeBSD is developed by a team of over 350 programmers and documentation writers. Over 13,000 third-party software suites are freely available for quick installation from the FreeBSD Packages Collection. For more information on FreeBSD visit:
http://www.FreeBSD.org/
The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the FreeBSD Project and community. The Foundation gratefully accepts donations from individuals and businesses, using them to fund and manage projects, sponsor FreeBSD events and Developer Summits, and provide travel grants to FreeBSD developers. In addition, the Foundation represents the FreeBSD Project in executing contracts, license agreements, and other legal arrangements that require a recognized legal entity. The FreeBSD Foundation is entirely supported by donations. More information about the FreeBSD Foundation is available on the web at:
http://www.FreeBSDFoundation.org/
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