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Title: Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (Second Edition) by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Albert S. Woodhull ISBN: 0-13-638677-6 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 15 January, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $96.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.04 (23 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent text book, well written and informative
Comment: This was the text for an OS course that I took for my Masters. We had to implement 11 significant OS features for Minix (e.g. floppy disk cache, VGA driver, interprocess communication server,...) -- bugs were unacceptable (i.e. fail), as OSs must work. This class was 4 times more work that an other class I took for my Masters but I learned so much. I was already a very experienced Unix programmer when I took this, so I found it facinating to finally see what was under the hood (Minix/Unix is surprisingly small an compact -- very elegant). Tanenbaum is a real authority on the subject of operating systems and has a very engaging style. Probably the best computer science text book that I have read (I read this cover to cover, not just scanning but really reading). There is room for improvement though: the format could benefit from being updated, I had to use a lot of high-lighter. Clearer separation and indexing of key theories and sections would help. The OS basics are still relevant today (and could perhaps benefit from some expansion/clarification). I believe Tanenbaum has brought out new books since that go into some more contemporary / more advance areas.
Rating: 2
Summary: Overrated
Comment: The authors of this text assume too much. This pretty much sums up the entirety of the work, which is too technical to make a good introductory text and too simple to make a good advanced discussion of operating systems.
First off, you need a very strong understanding of the C programming language to get anything out of this book. The length of the text is deceiving- almost half of it is actually printed source code of the MINIX operating system. What the other half of the book does is, essentially, wade through said source code. If you don't know C well, you're not going anywhere with this. I suggest buying 'The C Programming Language' (Prentice Hall: Kernighan, Ritchie) and 'Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment' (Addison Wesley: Stevens) if you don't already own them.
While the authors do go into some discussion about how the various parts of an operating system work, they don't go into any of the actual details. Why? Because MINIX simply doesn't DO a lot of these things (e.g. deadlock prevention, swapping or paging, advanced scheduling). If you're actually thinking of writing your own OS, you'll only get a general idea of what needs to be done, nothing more. The theory is covered quite well, but if you're looking for what this book advertises on the cover ('Design and Implementation') you will probably be disappointed.
There are some advantages to this text. I would have given it a higher rating, but I think the current one is deceptive. For one, if you're familiar with UNIX or Linux, MINIX is very similar. It's also a lot simpler and shorter code-wise, so it doesn't take a guru to modify the source. Also, like Linux, it isn't copyrighted. The system itself works well and is very educational. The book's resources are also well done, with an included CD that has all the source and comprehensive instructions on how to install it (be sure you backup first!). MINIX is also very well commented and, if you know C, is quite easy to understand.
Further, non-material problems with the text include a discussion that seems to jump from one place to another and doesn't make good use of diagrams. You'll often find a very useful diagram in the book... except that it's about three chapters ahead of where it really would have been enlightening. Key terms are in bold, but aren't summarized anywhere else in the book, oftentimes including the index! This can make it annoying to look up something you can't remember. Additionally, the numerous references to the MINIX source code simply refer to line numbers. Some might not mind this, but I personally found it frustrating to have to keep flipping back and forth between one half of the book and the other. It would have helped if the authors had just put the relevant source where it's discussed and left out the entire listing in the back. It's available on the CD and online anyway, if you need to look at all of it.
In summary, Operating Systems 2nd Ed. is very average in quality as a textbook, both for beginners and gurus. The MINIX operating system is well planned and designed, but the book itself offsets this quality with its flaws.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Book and Source Code Complete Introduction to OS
Comment: This is another of Tannenbaums great books. It is delightful to read his books. It deepens your understanding and gives you a feeling of happiness at the same time.
Specifically this book contains the entire source code of an OS (Minix THE predecessor of LINUX). It is complete and thoroughly explained. The source code is in C and sometimes in Assembler. Especially the Assembler parts are hard to grasp. The C code is sometimes very lucid sometimes I simply got lost. So I just stuck to the main text.
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Title: Modern Operating Systems (2nd Edition) by Andrew Tanenbaum ISBN: 0130313580 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 28 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $96.00 |
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Title: Operating System Concepts by Abraham Silberschatz, Greg Gagne, Peter Baer Galvin ISBN: 0471250600 Publisher: Wiley Text Books Pub. Date: 08 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $92.95 |
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Title: Computer Networks, Fourth Edition by Andrew S. Tanenbaum ISBN: 0130661023 Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR Pub. Date: 09 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $88.00 |
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Title: MicroC OS II: The Real Time Kernel (With CD-ROM) by Jean J. Labrosse ISBN: 1578201039 Publisher: CMP Books Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $74.95 |
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Title: C Programming Language (2nd Edition) by Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Dennis M. Ritchie ISBN: 0131103628 Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR Pub. Date: 22 March, 1988 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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