3.65

3

Jan 04, 2013

I really sunk my teeth into this book in an attempt to understand the years of computing that had come and gone before I began my entry into Computer Sciences. When it comes to understanding the core components of a computer system, there's no better place to begin learning. The illustrations used in the book are a bit dated and unnecessary, but this book should remain useful for some time to come.

5

Jun 26, 2011

The greatest book on operating systems by far. It combines plenty of information, flawless concise delivery, and useful exercises. This is one of the books that packs loads of technical details but reads as fiction. The content is structured very well, whatever questions arise during reading are usually answered on the following few pages. Questions that have no answers yet are also given, thus engaging the reader and once again ensuring that the reader follows the book closely. All in all, this The greatest book on operating systems by far. It combines plenty of information, flawless concise delivery, and useful exercises. This is one of the books that packs loads of technical details but reads as fiction. The content is structured very well, whatever questions arise during reading are usually answered on the following few pages. Questions that have no answers yet are also given, thus engaging the reader and once again ensuring that the reader follows the book closely. All in all, this is pure classics and recommended to everyone in the software industry. ...more

2

Nov 28, 2016

Very strict and stale structures in the language and disposition. Read Three Easy Pieces instead, much easier to read and more pedagogical while delivering the same content (:

5

May 07, 2014

Despite the massively dorky cover, this is an incredible book. I was assigned this book as textbook used in Computer Science 440 at Allegheny College, and while we did not read the entire book during that class, I intend to read it cover-to-cover this summer. Tanenbaum's clever, slightly witty writing style makes "Modern Operating Systems" a surprisingly engaging read for a textbook, and he's really adept at explaining concepts in OS theory and design in a very simple way that makes them quite Despite the massively dorky cover, this is an incredible book. I was assigned this book as textbook used in Computer Science 440 at Allegheny College, and while we did not read the entire book during that class, I intend to read it cover-to-cover this summer. Tanenbaum's clever, slightly witty writing style makes "Modern Operating Systems" a surprisingly engaging read for a textbook, and he's really adept at explaining concepts in OS theory and design in a very simple way that makes them quite easy to pick up. The figures, while simple, are clear, easy to understand, and very frequent. Code snippets, written in C, are also frequent, well-commented, and easy to understand. These factors all make this book a much better operating systems text than some others I could mention.

Furthermore, although some references are a bit dated*, this book covers or at least summarizes a lot of concepts which have become big recently, such as distributed systems and cloud computing, multiprocessing and concurrency, virtualization, security and data assurance, and issues related to mobile devices -- it's not just a tour of POSIX, unlike some other texts.

Tanenbaum explains not only how modern operating systems work, but why -- the history of the machines, people, and ideas that created the OS ecosystem we see today. He's obviously an expert in his field, as evidenced by his work on Minix, and the book conveys a lot of his theories and ideas, many of which are arguably light-years ahead of those used in the operating systems we tend to actually use on a day-to-day basis. After reading his book, one tends to see a lot of room for improvement in the OSes they use.

It's really important, I think, for all programmers, not just systems programmers, to have a clear understanding of how operating systems work and how their code interacts with the OS. Even if you're a web developer, web servers and browsers have to interact with an OS at some point**. Understanding how operating systems work and how they are designed is vital to writing good, efficient, and elegant software. While I'd definitely recommend this book to computer science professors over other similar textbooks, I'd also plug it to any pretty much any developer, programmer, or computer scientist who wants to improve their understanding of operating systems.




* Which is to be expected for pretty much any computer science text...
** More frequently than you'd imagine, in fact! ...more

3

Apr 04, 2012

A good solid explanation of operating systems, but a little disjointed.

I read this book not long after finishing TCP/IP illustrated by Stevens, so my memories are probably a little harsher than they would be otherwise. The book does a good job of outlining the basic components of an operating system, and how it works.

With excellent tech books, I feel like i have not only been taught the facts of a technology, but why the technology was built the way it was. That I remember many of the nitty A good solid explanation of operating systems, but a little disjointed.

I read this book not long after finishing TCP/IP illustrated by Stevens, so my memories are probably a little harsher than they would be otherwise. The book does a good job of outlining the basic components of an operating system, and how it works.

With excellent tech books, I feel like i have not only been taught the facts of a technology, but why the technology was built the way it was. That I remember many of the nitty gritty details because I know what the implementers were thinking at design time, and why they made the choices that they did.

It's much harder to do this in a book on a subject as wide as 'Operating Systems' than on the TCP/IP stack, but I felt like 'Modern Operating Systems' missed this part of tech writing entirely.

It's a competent book, and the facts are clearly stated. Just not in an overly interesting, or enlightening, way. ...more

5

Feb 06, 2016

A very good OS introduction, the first 500 pages are must-read for everyone. Later in the book it gets a bit boring, and the information is not that valuable. Also it is talked too much about the history, and that is getting annoying, so that's why I can't give it 5 stars.

5

Mar 18, 2009

While reading this book, I had the feeling that I'm actually a disciple of the great Tanenbaum. And that's itself is a very convincing reason to read the book.

0

Jun 28, 2010

this is really a good book about operating system technology, it make depth view to Minix, and good description about IPC.

5

May 05, 2011

Nice book to get a raw idea and most suitable for all students in the 6 th sem ....................


Nice and better than Galvin 7th Ed. , BPUTIIANS must c...............

Process concept & IPC is best given here............

4

Apr 15, 2014

Well to be honest, I dint finish it cover to cover. I have managed to (thanks to interest in *nix) more than a dozen book on operating system design. This one, ill admit, was different. It has an old school feel to it and it is surprisingly quite an easy read (although long). I really like this book mostly because I had troubles with remembering the fundamentals of semaphores amongst other things. This helped me a lot. Recommended.

3

Oct 21, 2011

Feels really poorly edited, especially for a third edition; the choice of subjects and the structuring are sometimes pretty haphazard, sections don't really flow into each other, and typoes abound.
Still, it eventually covers pretty much everything you would expect an undergraduate course on operating systems to cover. Solid, predictable, casually outdated, and basically fine.

(The fact that he refuses to use fixed-width fonts for code continues to be annoying. He made some effort to line up Feels really poorly edited, especially for a third edition; the choice of subjects and the structuring are sometimes pretty haphazard, sections don't really flow into each other, and typoes abound.
Still, it eventually covers pretty much everything you would expect an undergraduate course on operating systems to cover. Solid, predictable, casually outdated, and basically fine.

(The fact that he refuses to use fixed-width fonts for code continues to be annoying. He made some effort to line up end-of-line comments anyway, but often fails; again, poor editing.) ...more

5

Sep 30, 2014

This is the first computer science book that I have ever been able to read from cover to cover. Tanenbaum does a fantastic job of introducing and explaining concepts in a very linear manner so that if you do a deep reading of the book, it doesn't rely on very much outside knowledge except for that of C. There are even some spots where the author inserts some very dry jokes - dry humor is my humor and it's very rare, so this was a treat.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone with a background in This is the first computer science book that I have ever been able to read from cover to cover. Tanenbaum does a fantastic job of introducing and explaining concepts in a very linear manner so that if you do a deep reading of the book, it doesn't rely on very much outside knowledge except for that of C. There are even some spots where the author inserts some very dry jokes - dry humor is my humor and it's very rare, so this was a treat.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone with a background in programming with C who wants to understand a lot more about the details of how an operating system actually drives a computer. ...more

5

Jan 19, 2017

Not only is Tanenbaum knowledgeable, he's funny as well. I'm surprised how many quips made it into this book. Every chapter is well-done, although I found myself zoning out in the chapter on Windows. The project management section in the final chapter is well worth a read not just for developers, but for anyone who needs to understand the Software Development Life Cycle, and the Further Reading list is an encyclopedia of awesome reference material for future reading.

If you have the money for Not only is Tanenbaum knowledgeable, he's funny as well. I'm surprised how many quips made it into this book. Every chapter is well-done, although I found myself zoning out in the chapter on Windows. The project management section in the final chapter is well worth a read not just for developers, but for anyone who needs to understand the Software Development Life Cycle, and the Further Reading list is an encyclopedia of awesome reference material for future reading.

If you have the money for only one textbook on Operating Systems and your instructor isn't forcing your hand, choose this one. ...more

5

Jul 18, 2015

An excellent introduction to operating systems from one of the best scholars in the area. I was assigned this book as a textbook for a college course on operating systems, but I quickly fell in love with the book and found myself pouring over many of the sections not covered in class, and re-reading those we did discuss with greater detail. Tanenbaum's writing is excellent; it is clear and to the point but infused with enough wit and conversational tone to keep the reader engaged.

The book's An excellent introduction to operating systems from one of the best scholars in the area. I was assigned this book as a textbook for a college course on operating systems, but I quickly fell in love with the book and found myself pouring over many of the sections not covered in class, and re-reading those we did discuss with greater detail. Tanenbaum's writing is excellent; it is clear and to the point but infused with enough wit and conversational tone to keep the reader engaged.

The book's technical content is just as well thought out as the writing style. Tanenbaum presents an excellent mix of theory and practical examples, and he makes good use of the history of computing to contextualise various techniques and advances in operating systems technology. As readers with some knowledge in the history of operating systems might expect, Tanenbaum's text is rather opinionated, but he does an excellent job of separating his (usually correct) ideas from the book's factual content.

All in all, this is an excellent textbook, definitely among my favourite computer science books. ...more

4

May 27, 2015

The book comprehensively covers theories behind operating systems. I read the first five chapters, and I feel that I have more insights on how operating system works now. Simply put, operating system is abstraction of hardware. Hardware is primitive, constitute of physical parts (Disk, Memory, CPU), and physical parts are made out of bits.

Operating systems hide all the ugliness of hardware, providing a more user-friendly system. In designing such an abstraction, several fundamental topic need to The book comprehensively covers theories behind operating systems. I read the first five chapters, and I feel that I have more insights on how operating system works now. Simply put, operating system is abstraction of hardware. Hardware is primitive, constitute of physical parts (Disk, Memory, CPU), and physical parts are made out of bits.

Operating systems hide all the ugliness of hardware, providing a more user-friendly system. In designing such an abstraction, several fundamental topic need to be thought through:

1. Address Management
How does operating system understand where to go to fetch bits of data a user wants?

2. Process Management
How does a user application work? How do multiple applications work in an operating system at the same time? How do we schedule runnings of multiple applications? How to distribute computing power across multiple applications?

3. File Management
Where does a file live? How about a folder? How does operating system handle creating, deleting, editing a file, a folder?

4. Access Management
Who can access what resource in an operating system?

These are only a handful of important topics covered in this book. It’s relatively easy to start for computer science professionals. ...more

5

Mar 18, 2017

It is the best book for learning fundamentals of Operating Systems.
This book explains concepts, issues, design details, implementation strategies and various algorithms in simple and easy to understand manner.

5

Oct 16, 2016

Fourth edition of an academic book on Operating Systems by Tanenbaum and Bos. Scholarly, yet sarcastic at times with an apparent sense of focus that is sophisticated, and challenging, but the results are simple for users.

4

Mar 21, 2017

Modern Operating Systems by Andrew S. Tanenbaum has been a solid book and of course the influence of the educational Minix operating system is legendary.

3

Apr 18, 2018

This is my IT-600 book, it was good read but it was too long. But had to read in order for me to get my MBS.

4

Feb 22, 2019

A good book, have read every page, but not in great detail. A nice mix of topics and pretty easy to follow. Occasional humour.

5

Jan 25, 2019

I really enjoyed this book.

Tanenbaum writes with humor and clarity.

5

Sep 12, 2019

For a software engineer of any level, this book has a lot of great ideas to make your code more readable and maintainable. I wish I had discovered it earlier.

4

Jul 09, 2019

Good and interesting book. At the same time, a hard book. Thus, I decided that I would take a course on operating systems rather than reading all of it.

4

Jan 10, 2020

Pretty solid work that I've referred to often, no matter how many OS books I read.

5

Dec 20, 2017

The bible of Operating Systems. One of the most comprehensive books about computer science fundamentals.