Open source books

Learn more about open source and the growing open source movement with our comprehensive list of books below.

  • Download our free eBooks, which collect our best articles about open source and our interviews with open source thought leaders.
  • Dip into the Open Organization community to read about the future of work, management, and leadership in an open world.
  • Check out our summer reading favorites, a list of what the Opensource.com team and others are reading, compiled each year.
  • Review must-read open source essentials.

Open Voices eBook series

At Opensource.com we share hundreds of stories about the power of open source principles—transparency, community, participation, collaboration, meritocracy, rapid prototyping, and sharing. Each tale is the fruit of an ongoing, global conversation between people living and working the open source way.

Our Open Voices eBooks collect some of the most compelling articles and interviews we’ve published over the years. We produce them using open source tools and publish them in open formats—free of DRM.

Download our eBooks for free to learn more about the open source way. Then pass them on. Share them with others. And, join the conversation at Opensource.com. We have many more stories to tell together.

Bits and bolts: The past, present, and future of open hardware

During Open Hardware Week at Opensource.com, we asked more than a dozen open-minded technologists to explain how applying open source principles to physical devices is shaping the way we work and play—now and in the future. They answered with so many wonderful things: flashlights made from lip balm, automated pet feeders, computerized guitar pedals, even 3D-printed prosthetics. And for a few dazzling days, we saw how that open world was becoming a reality.

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Open source talks: OSCON 2014 speaker interviews

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention—or OSCON, as it's popularly known—is one of the world's premier open source events. Eagerly awaiting another year of open source wonders, the Opensource.com community caught up with a handful of notable OSCON speakers to gather behind-the-scenes stories about their passions for open source. This book collects the interviews we conducted.

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Experimenting with open science: Open source in the field and in the lab

When science and open source meet—in the field and in the lab—both benefit. In June 2014, Opensource.com asked scientists, librarians, inventors, tinkerers, and programmers to explain how open source tools, projects, and values are impacting their work. The result: Open Science Week, an event that featured nearly two dozen articles from open-minded experts eager to explore the intersection of the scientific method and the open source way. This eBook collects those articles.

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Open source in the library: A guide for open-minded bibliophiles

Libraries embody the open source way—perhaps more than any other cultural institution today. In April 2014, Opensource.com invited open-minded bibliophiles to share stories about the powerful ways open source thinking reverberates through libraries. This eBook collects their tales.

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How to get started with open source

The collection of stories in this eBook are about striking out on the open source way. Whether you're an individual, seeking information on moving away from closed software, or an organization looking for free and open alternatives to the utilities that help your business succeed, these are stories about finding your footing in the world of open source.

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How women are shaping the open source landscape

Hear unique perspectives on open source organizations and projects you may be familiar with, like GNOME, the Open Technology Institute, OpenStack, and Red Hat. Learn about the growth happening in new areas, like open hardware. And, discover new ways of designing, collaborating, and working.

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Getting youth involved in open source

In this collection, discover how to get youth interested in coding, information on the various Linux distributions for kids and educators, the best projects for kids and beginners to open source, and more. Hear how students, parents, programmers, start-ups, IT directors, and others educate, include, and involve our youth in learning about and using open technologies and open principles.

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Open always wins: A Michael Tiemann collection

Michael Tiemann is Vice President of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat and former President of the Open Source Initiative. He has written many articles for Opensource.com speaking to the power of the open source way, and part of his process has been to highlight the great ideas of others.

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How open source is shaping the future of business and our lives: All Things Open conference interview series

This eBook is a collection of interviews with speakers from the All Things Open conference, the first of it's kind, in Raleigh, NC. The conference explores open source and the open web in the enterprise with some of the top developers, technologists, and decision makers in the industry.

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Open source video editing for beginners: Kdenlive series

This eBook is a video editing tutorial by independent multimedia artist Seth Kenlon. Consisting of six installments, this series introduces aspiring videographers to Kdenlive, a powerful multi-track video editor available for GNU/Linux.

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Applying open source principles to government

This eBook features stories from around the world that illustrate how open source is making government more transparent and accessible.

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An open world: Stories from the open source community

This eBook contains some of the most empowering and popular stories from our open source community. Discover how open source is changing education, government, law, health, and other areas.

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Open minded CEOs

This eBook features CEOs from some of today’s most intriguing companies. We call these leaders "open-minded" because of their intuitive sense that the open source way is the best way to do business.

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Open Organization

The open organization community at Opensource.com has collectively written several companion volumes to Jim Whitehurst's 2015 book, The Open Organization. They're all available for download.

Opensource.com favorite reads

Each year, our community collaborates on an open source summer reading list. Each one is filled with recommendations for books our readers, advocates, and experts feel exemplify the open source way. Browse the lists to find your new favorite read.

Open source essentials

Many authors have chronicled the history of open source and profiled the movement’s most prolific personalities. These are some of the most popular accounts. If we taught a class—call it "Open Source 101"—then this list would be the syllabus.

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