Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: As a Professor in a Department Computer and Information Science at Shepherd College - I am constantly reviewing text books for our Computer Science Department. I recently took a Doctorate class in Operating Systems were this text was used. My opinion is that this text did a wonderful job explain memory management, scheduling, processing, and deadlocking. Chapters 1 through 8 spent a great deal of time explaining the theory of an operating system. I only have a few complaints - the first one is the exercises at the end of the chapters. The exercises could have example throughout the text. Some of the questions were not written very well. I am a visual learning and the text needs more visual examples. Overall - I liked the text and I will be using it in my CIS 390 Operating Systems course at Shepherd College.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: As a Professor in a Department Computer and Information Science at Shepherd College - I am constantly reviewing text books for our Computer Science Department. I recently took a Doctorate class in Operating Systems were this text was used. My opinion is that this text did a wonderful job explain memory management, scheduling, processing, and deadlocking. Chapters 1 through 8 spent a great deal of time explaining the theory of an operating system. I only have a few complaints - the first one is the exercises at the end of the chapters. The exercises could have example throughout the text. Some of the questions were not written very well. I am a visual learning and the text needs more visual examples. Overall - I liked the text and I will be using it in my CIS 390 Operating Systems course at Shepherd College.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Operating Systems
Review: Excellent book for the beginner. While it does assume some general knowledge of computers and peripherals, it does not rely on any specific language or detailed technical knowledge to understand. I found the text very readable and the analogies to real world situations helpful. The text is laid out so that each major topic is presented in a similar fashion and the excercises at the end are about the same length and require about the same level of understanding. Good reference manual for large concepts.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best presentation of the subject matter
Review: I'm taking a course in Operating systems, and this is the text book that I was given. I don't know if the material is presented poorly, but this book hasn't help me grasp what are probably the basic concepts. Just as the previous reviewer stated, they are few illustrations to clarify the points made in the book. I also think some real world examples would have helped. This book only touches lightly on Unix. But emphasizes Micosoft OSes a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Not for newbies
Review: This book already assumes you know almost everything. Not good if your a newbie. You'd be better served with a different book. If you're an advanced PC user, this book will work great. Uses few pictures, so if you're a visual learner (like me), you'll get lost quick. Much of this book went right over my head. It's just words on paper. Wish the author would have used a Shelly-Cashman style of writing, using more diagrams and pictures to communicate their thoughts.
Rating:
Summary: Complicated Concepts, Clearly Communicated
Review: This is a good introduction to how operating systems work -- not nearly as technical as hard-core books written for computer scientists. The first 11 chapters explains the common basics of all operating systems, how OS's manage main memory, processors, devices, files etc. The last 5 chapters describe specific OS's for PCs and mainframes, and how they apply the features discussed in the first 11 chapters. Being an "old-teckie-timer", I've worked with the big, medium, and small boxes, in several operating systems, and many languauges. I've taught this stuff to non-techs, too. My task is always to "simplify and communicate, without losing the meaning". I'm a techo-translator. So are Flynn/McHoes. As a classroom textbook or a supplement to a technical CS book, it's great because it's easy to read and understand. But it's not "OS for Dummies." I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the nuts and bolts of operating systems without having to read or write the code that runs the machine.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent treatment of OS concepts
Review: This text explains OS functions and features from a conceptual standpoint, with a focus on how and why things work. An overview of the components of an OS is given, then each piece is explored in detail. The general OS model consists of a User Command Interface, Process Manager, Memory Manager, Device Manager, and File Manager. After covering the OS from a general perspective in the first half of the book, the second half deals with the details/differences of MS-DOS, Windows 2000, Unix, OpenVMS Alpha, and OS/390. This is an excellent introductory book, explaining the inner workings of an OS without using complex math and code examples. The foundation provided by this book will prepare the reader for real, hard-core OS details that are found in other OS texts.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent treatment of OS concepts
Review: This text explains OS functions and features from a conceptual standpoint, with a focus on how and why things work. An overview of the components of an OS is given, then each piece is explored in detail. The general OS model consists of a User Command Interface, Process Manager, Memory Manager, Device Manager, and File Manager. After covering the OS from a general perspective in the first half of the book, the second half deals with the details/differences of MS-DOS, Windows 2000, Unix, OpenVMS Alpha, and OS/390. This is an excellent introductory book, explaining the inner workings of an OS without using complex math and code examples. The foundation provided by this book will prepare the reader for real, hard-core OS details that are found in other OS texts.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Operating Systems
Review: This text gives perspective to the enormous world of OS. Through distinct organization of discussing each OS manager as well as drawing parallels between manager systems, the reader walks away with a sound understanding. The final chapters address news OS and networking. The exercises at the end of each chapter are especially good with sound application practice. As with any text, thre are a few minor glitches in explanations and computations especially in relation to offset. This is a great Intro to OS text.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Operating Systems
Review: This text gives perspective to the enormous world of OS. Through distinct organization of discussing each OS manager as well as drawing parallels between manager systems, the reader walks away with a sound understanding. The final chapters address news OS and networking. The exercises at the end of each chapter are especially good with sound application practice. As with any text, thre are a few minor glitches in explanations and computations especially in relation to offset. This is a great Intro to OS text.
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