Articles by Simon Keller

Practical reading in this subject: short enough to finish, specific enough to practice, and ready to use at home or at work.

How to Evaluate a Free Online Textbook

I learned web development from free materials long before “open educational resources” became a common phrase. It was empowering, but it also taught me something the hard way: free does not automatically mean reliable. Some community-contributed textbooks are better than expensive commercial ones....

OpenStax vs. LibreTexts for Self-Learners

I learned web development the scrappy way: public domain books, open course notes, and a lot of late nights testing ideas in a text editor. That experience made me picky about “free” resources. A free textbook is only helpful if you can actually use it: you can find what you need, trust the...

Build a Self-Taught Curriculum With Free Open Textbooks

I learned web development the same way a lot of self-taught folks do: late nights, stubborn curiosity, and a pile of free material that I had to stitch into something coherent. The hard part was never finding resources. The hard part was building a curriculum that kept me moving forward when...

About Simon Keller

Hi, I’m Simon Keller. Welcome to Free Online Textbooks , a site built around one simple idea: useful books should help you build real skills, not drain your budget. I’m a dedicated self-learner and an open-source enthusiast, and I spend an embarrassing amount of time hunting down high-quality,...