FreeBSD Device Drivers
FreeBSD Device Drivers by Joseph Kongby Joseph Kong
Shares rank 18 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Free, lucid guide to FreeBSD device drivers that teaches alongside the programming language. Critics say it reads as padded, AI-generated text.
Free, lucid guide to FreeBSD device drivers that teaches alongside the programming language. Critics say it reads as padded, AI-generated text.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Starts from basics for newcomers
“Never seen a book written that incorporates the programming language as part of the learning material.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” “A book that explicitly starts before that wall sounds like exactly what's been missing.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Looks AI-generated
“very lucid idea for a book, though the ai generated cover doesn't inspire much confidence in me”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” “I'm convinced the examples I read were auto-generated in bulk.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” “This book is a dishonest AI scam.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” - Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book”
Padded with filler text
“But to get to them one has to dig through a forrest of useless tokens.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” “The whole book is full of water. It can be reduced in size by a factor of 5.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” Questionable content quality
“theres some questionable quality content in the book”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” “It doesn't seem like a good book. I would skip it.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” Poor intro for learning C
“It is unsuitable for one learning the language.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book” “It's not the best intro to C, for sure.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “FreeBSD Device Drivers Book”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Matthias Felleisen and Robert Bruce Findler and Matthew Flatt and Shriram Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| FreeBSD Device Driversby Joseph KongThis page | 8 | 6 | 57% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
18 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“This is not AI slop... as somebody who sees a lot of AI generated content in my day job - this isn't it”
“It is unsuitable for one learning the language.”
“It's not the best intro to C, for sure.”
“very lucid idea for a book, though the ai generated cover doesn't inspire much confidence in me”
“But to get to them one has to dig through a forrest of useless tokens.”
“The whole book is full of water. It can be reduced in size by a factor of 5.”
“I'm convinced the examples I read were auto-generated in bulk.”
“Books are great. Even if they are not perfect.”
“theres some questionable quality content in the book”
“its FREE. no ads nothing.”
“this book is such an epic”
“this book cost way more of my time than it should have”
“A book that explicitly starts before that wall sounds like exactly what's been missing.”
“It doesn't seem like a good book. I would skip it.”
“This book is a dishonest AI scam.”
“this book is 100% LLM slop”
“If you're trying to get more contributors to your project, that seems like an excellent way to do it”
“Never seen a book written that incorporates the programming language as part of the learning material.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.