Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar
10/2
Integrating Windows and Linux, fornever and ever. Yes, the book that consumed much of my life and my health over the course of the past year or so since I finished Optimizing Windows has been quietly cancelled. I can’t say I’m happy about it. Actually there are a lot of things I’d like to say right now but I won’t. All rights did revert back to me, so I can find another publisher if I decide I want to finish it.
I’ve known about this for about a week, and the questions haven’t really gone away: Is this book like the ex-girlfriend I’m really better off without? Do I miss that book, or do I miss working on a book, period? Did I settle for a mediocre subject I wasn’t very comfortable with, just for the sake of writing a book?
So I’m toying with a subject I’m much more comfortable with, one that I have extremely strong opinions on, to see whether I’ve still got what it takes (mentally) to write a book. NaturallySpeaking will help with the physical part. I’ve started writing, slowly. Fortunately I have material I can dust off, clean up, and drop into place to jumpstart the project. Beyond that, I’m not going to say anything specific, except that I want to write for someone other than O’Reilly this time. I need a change of scenery. (And no one values loyalty these days anyway.)
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Sure would like to read this material on windows and linux. Have you thought about publishing it to the public domain, and making it available on your site?
Can’t do it. The rights remain with O’Reilly. I wrote some chapters I wasn’t paid for, so I could maybe argue that those chapters belong to me, but it’d be a horrible mess.
O’Reilly would have the rights to release it, assuming they have any copies of any of it. I doubt they do. And as strange as it may seem, I’m not positive I can locate my copies at this point.
But on the plus side, virtually everything that I learned in the process of writing those chapters (and then some) ended up here somewhere. Not in the same form, but arguably better. In some cases definitely better, since Linux and its supporting software has changed a lot in three years. The main thrust of the book was having a Windows guy explain Linux to other Windows guys. That’s what we’ve got here.
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‘All rights did revert back to me, so I can find another publisher if I decide I want to finish it.’
‘Have you thought about publishing it to the public domain,’
‘Can’t do it. The rights remain with O’Reilly’
The rights reverted back to me *IF* I repaid O’Reilly the small advance I got. It didn’t happen and it won’t. I get paid in pre-tax dollars, buy back with post-tax…
Look at the date on the post versus the dates on the comments. Things that aren’t clear tend to come clearer in two and a half years.
The book’s gone. It’s history. A relic of a time I have no desire whatsoever to revisit. That’s publishing.
If you don’t like it, well, there’s nothing I can do about it. Or nothing I *will* do about it. I’ve got other things I have to do with life now.