Rating: 
Summary: Great book for Up-to-date OS
Review: A very useful book that discusses security issues not covered in the previous and much older edition. Also the topics included for Windows 2000 were needed and well covered. It's a bir numara book!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Intro to Practical OS Design and Implementation
Review: Andrew Tanenbaum ( http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/ ) boots your neural network in the right direction in his classic introductory text to Operating Systems and the pre-cursor to his more recent "Distributed Operating Systems" (ISBN: 0132199084). He presents bit-level discussions addressing the core OS issues of processes, memory management, file systems and I/O (among others). He then buffers the information with in-depth, case study comparisons of unix, ms-dos, mach and amoeba (which Tanenbaum co-developed; see: http://www.am.cs.vu.nl/ ). Tanenbaum does not ignore theory altogether, but puts most of his effort into relaying practical concerns and solutions to real OS's. Tanenbaum's sense of humor never flags or fails to register; a most desirable quality in a technical book one is reading after 8-10 hours in the cubicle world. For instance, regarding the POSIX standard, "The [RFC] 1003.1 document is written in such a way that both operating system implementers and software writers can understand it, [a] novelty in the standards world, although work is already underway to remedy this." The book assumes the reader has basic programming knowledge, though nothing beyond first year C. Tanenbaum has included numerous clear and helpful diagrams, as well as problem sets at the end of each chapter. Thoroughly enjoyed - highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Intro to Practical OS Design and Implementation
Review: Andrew Tanenbaum ( http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/ ) boots your neural network in the right direction in his classic introductory text to Operating Systems and the pre-cursor to his more recent "Distributed Operating Systems" (ISBN: 0132199084). He presents bit-level discussions addressing the core OS issues of processes, memory management, file systems and I/O (among others). He then buffers the information with in-depth, case study comparisons of unix, ms-dos, mach and amoeba (which Tanenbaum co-developed; see: http://www.am.cs.vu.nl/ ). Tanenbaum does not ignore theory altogether, but puts most of his effort into relaying practical concerns and solutions to real OS's.
Tanenbaum's sense of humor never flags or fails to register; a most desirable quality in a technical book one is reading after 8-10 hours in the cubicle world. For instance, regarding the POSIX standard, "The [RFC] 1003.1 document is written in such a way that both operating system implementers and software writers can understand it, [a] novelty in the standards world, although work is already underway to remedy this."
The book assumes the reader has basic programming knowledge, though nothing beyond first year C. Tanenbaum has included numerous clear and helpful diagrams, as well as problem sets at the end of each chapter.
Thoroughly enjoyed - highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult to follow for beginners; missing key information.
Review: Certainly this is not the book if you don't have knowledge in operating systems. The matter is organized in a crisp fashion. Most of the places the material is not clear: in page 91 the sentence "It then fetches the page just referenced into the page frame just freed, changes the map...". In the example that follows this sentence, the steps are not arranged in a sequence. To understand this example, the better way is to keep a pen and a paper and workout. Who want to keep a pen and a paper than understanding the matter easily from the book? Another example: in page 103, 3rd para: "If the virtual page number is present..., the same way as it would be from the page table itself". Unfortunately the author has not explained read-only pages etc. while explaining the diagrams 3-11 or 3-12. As a final example, in page replacement algorithms (starts at page # 107), the concept of how the operating system identifies the required location in the secondary memory is not explained. If you have some good knowledge in OS then certainly it is a good book to improve your breadth of understanding.
Rating:
Summary: From a computer lover's point of view
Review: Even though I never formally studied CS I loved this book. It's got just enough detail to explain how everything works without getting bogged down in the small stuff. Even though the nature of the material is complicated, it's so nicely written that it reads very easily. It's almost bathroom reading. :-0
I've read many computer books just to learn new things and this one definitely gave me the most for my money out of all the ones I've seen.
Rating:
Summary: Do not skip PART II on case studies !
Review: From what i recall (i read this book 3 years ago, when i was a graduate student), this book is good for introduction as well as for advanced concepts in operating systems. I fully aggree with the reviewer from 1997. I don't think this book being sloppy nor difficult for beginners (sorry other reviewers). It certainly requires some time to be read (i recall having read it at a pace of about two or three evenings for one chapter, with about 2-3 hours per evening so i don't think it is that difficult for beginners). In addition, Tanenbaum's style is always good and his sense of humor makes the text full of those subtle remarks that make you dive into the subject with less pain. Probably that the third part of the book about Distributed OS is not a good reading for beginners but just skip it on your first reading and go back to it when you'll be ready. An important thing is that Part II which is about case studies should not be skipped by newcomers ! This is exactly while reading this part of the book that you'll understand all the concepts you learned in the first part, by applying all this theoretical stuff on actual OS implementations. Probably the reviewer that states this book is not for beginners didn't make it to Part II because one cannot understand OS just by learning concepts, like everything else in computer science...
Rating:
Summary: Loaded with errors... From a Student
Review: I do hope that prospective teachers/instructors at the collegiate level read reviews of books before choosing them. If so, then stear clear of this book. I am reading the 2nd edition version for a college level Operating Systems class. I have had some back books, but this one bites big time. What astonishes me most is not the actual type of errors, but the type of errors combined with the large number of errors. There are so many gramatical errors, one wonders if Mr Tanenbaum uses Word with spell/grammar check enabled. My entire reading flow is disrupted when I have to re-read a sentence and try to interpret his meaning via the incorrect grammar. Even the diagrams are incorrect. For example, on the section regarding Deadlocks, 3.4.1, he doesn't even have the letters correct in his explanation. If you look at Figure 3.5 a and then 3.5 b, you see the discrenpency, in 3.5b he has R where he should have T. I had to re-read the section just to make sure I understood it correctly. How such errors like this could still exist in a second edition is beyond me. The flow from one section to another lacks as well. I just don't find this to be a collegiate level book, and am making an assumption that those who are giving this a high rating are either A) Friends of Mr. Tanenbaum or B) Far above the collegiate level themselves, so much so that they fail to see the errors. You know how it is when you are quite familiar with something that your brain will actually over-compensate and read over errors, or complete pictures/diagrams that are incomplete. I would not recommend this book to anyone, and only give it 2 stars because there is about 30%-40% of value in the book, if you can bypass the errors. Students beware...
Rating:
Summary: The choice for a general OS course
Review: I had in my hands the first edition of this book and I can assure that this second edition is a big improvement: now it really is "modern". The book covers all of the theoretical aspects of a modern OS, but some chapters are real gems. For example, the chapter on security is a little 100 pages book inside a book. Tanenbaum has a gift for explaining and entertaining, and sometime make you ponder about evolutions of technologies, influences on society and other points like these that helps you to "have a break" when studying has started many hours before.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book for a hobbyist
Review: I have been using UNIX/Linux for a number of years, both professionally (scientist) and as a hobbyist at home. I am not enough of a C programmer to jump into the kernel discussions, but I had a real interest in learning what went on under-the-hood of the operating system. `Modern Operating Systems' was an ideal match for the questions I had and my level of experience. The discussions were general enough that I could understand the give and take between the components of the operating system. Many was the time that I said `aha!, that's what is going on.' As he explained mutexes, spinlocks or buffer overflows. I understand a great deal more now, thanks to this book. And, Dr. Tanenbaum's writing style is clear and light enough that the book was enjoyable to read, a rarity in a textbook. While this is probably not the book for everyone, with an interest in knowing more about computers and a little background, Dr. Tanenbaum serves up a real treat in this text.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book for a hobbyist
Review: I have been using UNIX/Linux for a number of years, both professionally (scientist) and as a hobbyist at home. I am not enough of a C programmer to jump into the kernel discussions, but I had a real interest in learning what went on under-the-hood of the operating system. 'Modern Operating Systems' was an ideal match for the questions I had and my level of experience. The discussions were general enough that I could understand the give and take between the components of the operating system. Many was the time that I said 'aha!, that's what is going on.' As he explained mutexes, spinlocks or buffer overflows. I understand a great deal more now, thanks to this book. And, Dr. Tanenbaum's writing style is clear and light enough that the book was enjoyable to read, a rarity in a textbook. While this is probably not the book for everyone, with an interest in knowing more about computers and a little background, Dr. Tanenbaum serves up a real treat in this text.
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