# FreeBSD Device Drivers by Joseph Kong

8 Hacker News commenters recommended FreeBSD Device Drivers by Joseph Kong and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, lucid guide to FreeBSD device drivers that teaches alongside the programming language. Critics say it reads as padded, AI-generated text.

## Why people recommend it

- Starts from basics for newcomers (2 comments): "Never seen a book written that incorporates the programming language as part of the learning material." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917092)) "A book that explicitly starts before that wall sounds like exactly what's been missing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47918546))

## What people warn about

- Looks AI-generated (4 comments): "very lucid idea for a book, though the ai generated cover doesn't inspire much confidence in me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47932849)) "I'm convinced the examples I read were auto-generated in bulk." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47925712)) "This book is a dishonest AI scam." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47918199))
- Padded with filler text (2 comments): "But to get to them one has to dig through a forrest of useless tokens." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927377)) "The whole book is full of water. It can be reduced in size by a factor of 5." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927270))
- Questionable content quality (2 comments): "theres some questionable quality content in the book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919355)) "It doesn't seem like a good book. I would skip it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47918477))
- Poor intro for learning C (2 comments): "It is unsuitable for one learning the language." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47935196)) "It's not the best intro to C, for sure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47935160))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=FreeBSD+Device+Drivers+Book&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "FreeBSD Device Drivers by Joseph Kong", https://hackerapproved.com/p/freebsd-device-drivers-book/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).