Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: as always tanenbaum has come up with a good book ,this time on distributed systems .Though some of the material is not up todate,still makes interesting reading. Would recommend for students and programmers .

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but poor choice of cover art
Review: Chapters 1 through 4 are a great introduction to Distributed Systems, in the case you have had less than optimal training on the subject in the past - I read these chapters at the beginning of a recent Distributed Systems graduate course since this was the situation I was in. Chapters 5 through 7, which were the main concentration in the course, are also the heart of the text: Synchronization, Consistency and Replication, and Fault Tolerance. The authors write very well, and the diagrams are among the best I have seen, especially if you think visually like me. In my opinion, some of the explanations are drawn out a bit much, or worded in a strange way, but this does not take away from the text's substance. What does subtract from my high opinion of the book is the cover art, which makes it look like a book one would read in grade school. At least one professor in the graduate school I am attending is not interested in using the text for his DS courses for that very reason.

Rating:
Summary: You must be a serious student to finish this book
Review: I acquired this book after reading Tanenbaum's excellent "Modern Operating Systems, 2nd ed." While I enjoyed that book, I couldn't finish "Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms." Those without a programming background and a serious need to learn distributed design principles won't finish either.

"Distributed Systems" doesn't engage the reader as "Modern Operating Systems" does. While important topics like communication, processes, naming, synchronization, etc. are given full chapter coverage, discussion within some chapters fall short. For example, why introduce the concept of "little" and "big endian" on pages 74 and 75, but not adequately explain what those terms mean?

My favorite aspects of "Distributed Systems" were the chapter summaries. I could almost have had my interests satisfied by reading these concise descriptions of key computing ideas. If you don't need this book in the classroom, you'll probably be happy reading the summaries, too.

Rating:
Summary: You must be a serious student to finish this book
Review: I acquired this book after reading Tanenbaum's excellent "Modern Operating Systems, 2nd ed." While I enjoyed that book, I couldn't finish "Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms." Those without a programming background and a serious need to learn distributed design principles won't finish either.

"Distributed Systems" doesn't engage the reader as "Modern Operating Systems" does. While important topics like communication, processes, naming, synchronization, etc. are given full chapter coverage, discussion within some chapters fall short. For example, why introduce the concept of "little" and "big endian" on pages 74 and 75, but not adequately explain what those terms mean?

My favorite aspects of "Distributed Systems" were the chapter summaries. I could almost have had my interests satisfied by reading these concise descriptions of key computing ideas. If you don't need this book in the classroom, you'll probably be happy reading the summaries, too.

Rating:
Summary: You must be a serious student to finish this book
Review: I acquired this book after reading Tanenbaum's excellent "Modern Operating Systems, 2nd ed." While I enjoyed that book, I couldn't finish "Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms." Those without a programming background and a serious need to learn distributed design principles won't finish either.

"Distributed Systems" doesn't engage the reader as "Modern Operating Systems" does. While important topics like communication, processes, naming, synchronization, etc. are given full chapter coverage, discussion within some chapters fall short. For example, why introduce the concept of "little" and "big endian" on pages 74 and 75, but not adequately explain what those terms mean?

My favorite aspects of "Distributed Systems" were the chapter summaries. I could almost have had my interests satisfied by reading these concise descriptions of key computing ideas. If you don't need this book in the classroom, you'll probably be happy reading the summaries, too.

Rating:
Summary: A rather painful experience
Review: Some people like Tanenbaum's writing style. Other people find his work tedious and boring.

I belong to the latter group.

Most of the book is just waffle... he explains neither the general principles nor the implementation specifics in great detail, but instead spends 10 pages explaining the obvious, follows that with a page with good technical information, then a page of insightful commentary, but then continues again with another 10 pages of pointless chatter.

Some chapters provide practical information, but it is clearly aimed at the university student -- and has all the excitement of a monotonous lecturer.

If you're after a to-the-point summary, try something else.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Distributed Computing Reference
Review: Tanenbaum and van Steen have updated their textbooks on networks and distributed systems to include chapters on Distributed Document-Based Systems (examples: The World Wide Web / Lotus Notes) and Distributed Coordination-Based Systems (examples: TIBCO/Rendezvous / JINI). There are other good chapters as well, including; Security, Distributed Object-Based Systems, Distributed File Systems, Fault Tolerance, Consistency & Replication, and more. I have always liked Tanenbaum's textbooks and picked this one up for a textbook discussion of TIBCO/Rendezvous because of my work in federated information systems. The chapter on TIBCO discusses the coordination model, architecture, messaging, events, processes, naming, synchronization, caching, replication, fault tolerance and security. There is a similar discussion on JINI and a follow-up comparative analysis of TIBCO/Rendezvous and JINI. In short, this book is an excellent reference for people of all experience and education levels working with distributed systems. Like all Tanenbaum's books, Distributed Systems is well written and easy to read. Highly Recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Distributed Computing Reference
Review: Tanenbaum and van Steen have updated their textbooks on networks and distributed systems to include chapters on Distributed Document-Based Systems (examples: The World Wide Web / Lotus Notes) and Distributed Coordination-Based Systems (examples: TIBCO/Rendezvous / JINI). There are other good chapters as well, including; Security, Distributed Object-Based Systems, Distributed File Systems, Fault Tolerance, Consistency & Replication, and more. I have always liked Tanenbaum's textbooks and picked this one up for a textbook discussion of TIBCO/Rendezvous because of my work in federated information systems. The chapter on TIBCO discusses the coordination model, architecture, messaging, events, processes, naming, synchronization, caching, replication, fault tolerance and security. There is a similar discussion on JINI and a follow-up comparative analysis of TIBCO/Rendezvous and JINI. In short, this book is an excellent reference for people of all experience and education levels working with distributed systems. Like all Tanenbaum's books, Distributed Systems is well written and easy to read. Highly Recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Very detailed, very thorough, great read!
Review: This book is a very detailed, well illustrated, and very thorough introduction to distributed systems - I greatly appreciate the comparison between WWW and Lotus Notes linking and distribution schemes. This book is a great read - there is only a little source code - pseudo code - so it is pretty easy to just read a chapter per night. I appreciate the recent printing - a great deal can change in this industry in a short time. Coulouris' book, which is very similar but with fewer illustrations, is two years old now! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: technical but well covering
Review: This book is the next after the adorable "Modern Operating Systems" by Tannenbaum. The book is well written with a widest and broad view of this area. No wonder because the authors are running a project of building one. The books indeed touches the basic important ideas behind a distributed systems very well and try in later chapters to give some practical view of how it is done. The descriptions at some point are too technical (i.e trivial) and sometimes repeating. a load of some 100 pages could be cut off this book. I am in junior class and I learn it by myself (I couldn't take the course) with no difficulties. On the other hand some other "ACADEMIC", but important aspect are not mentioned at all. For example: Self stabilization. You will not find knowledge on J2EE or Web services in this book, but after reading it all these ideas should look very natural for you - as after reading a good book on a subject. Read it and enjoy, just don't dig yourself too much into dull technical details.