Rating: 
Summary: an useful book
Review: after reading this book , you can know the kernel of linux goin
Rating: 
Summary: Too vague to help you understand linux kernel.
Review: Basically there are two approaches to help you really understand how unix kernel works. The static approach is to look at the code and illustrate how various parts cooperate. The dynamic approach is by showing you how to play with the kernel with various tools the kernel hacker used to debug kernel. This book takes the static approach mostly. I just browsed through the first several chapters and disappointedly found this one did not really help if you don't already know another unix kernel. This book does not cover x86's multitasking support mechnism at all. The kernel memory management chapter is also too vague. It even makes people thinking whether the authors really understand the content at a kernel hacker's level. Though I would rather believe the authors did not have enough time(or due to some other limitations) to illustrate what they know in detail. Unfortunately, to be terse does not work for static approach.The most sucessful static approach I have seen is Dr. Tanebaum's 1997 book about minx. And the best dynamic approach to me is Pate's Unix Kernel internels: a practical approach. I really hope there will be a linux kernel book that can be comparable to the above two.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the faint of heart.
Review: For me this book was quite a disappointment. The English is too breezy, awkward, and quite often extremely difficult to understand. While I understand that authors are not all native English speakers it appears that if it was edited the editor didn't write English either. While the blurb says that it was updated for the 2.0 kernel it is really about the 1.0.x series. I found little I could trust about the 2.0.x kernel.
Rating: 
Summary: better than average but not outstanding
Review: For the Linx freak wanting to takle the kernel internal this is certainly a good book. Certainly more interesting than the average '1000 page, big character" book which is only a fast rewrite of the documentation and include of as much as possible available document. On the other side, this book is not on a par with kernel books such as the Bach one, Tannebaum's, especially (but not Linux oriented, but my favorite) Vahalla "Unix internals, the new frontier", the BSD internal or even "the magic garden explained". With Linux the interesting point is the wide availability of source code to read. There, this book can help gain a lot of time but go to the classics for more though. By the way the English translation from german is average, R Stevens books are refered under a German title !!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I admitt it. Before reading this book I had no idea how an OS operates ( can't blame me, I'm 15). After I passed the last page I was on my way to writing a simple device driver. A must have book for anyone interested in the inner workings of any OS. Enjoy this execellent book. -Jon
Rating:
Summary: Great for understanding
Review: I consider myself an system apps programmer. That means above the OS, but below the apps programmer. In other words I would write databases, web servers, etc. I found this book excellent. It explains the workings of Linux without bogging down in details. It took me about 3 days to read the book and as such I have a firm understanding of how Linux works. Be forewarned though that you do need to understand what an OS wants to achieve in general. For example the issues of virtual memory, file systems, user and kernel mode. Will it help me write extensions to the OS or device drivers? Maybe, but only after doing some kernel digging. But that does not matter since I really wanted an insiders knowledge of how Linux worked and what the limitations and great features of Linux are.
Rating: 
Summary: not a teaching book
Review: I don't think this book teaches the Linux kernel at all. The writing is hard to understand and there is a total lack of examples. Some times they would pull out pieces of Linux source code and call that an example. At other times they would give you a theoretical three paragraph discussion and call that an example. I guess technically they did give an example, but those examples don't teach because they are too hard. Books are suppose to give easy examples that get progressively harder instead of dumping the real thing at you right-a-way. The book is really for people who already knows Linux or Unix and need to look up what a particular function do (because Kernel function are not in the "man" pages) The only good part about this book is that the index is very complete so you can look up an unknown function quickly - that's basically why I kept the book. But as a teaching device - which was what I was looking for - the book fails completely.
Rating:
Summary: Great intro to Linux internals
Review: I found the explanations in this book to be very clear, giving enough detail for a good head start into Linux internals. The book briefly explains the OS concepts, such as semaphores, virtual memory, etc., followed by an overview of how each is implemented in Linux, and code snippets. Most of the code snippets are simplified for readability, which I found useful because the hacks can be distracting (scary, too) for a beginner. Detailed and up-to-date information can best be obtained from source code itself. The book assumes some familiarity with Unix concepts, as it mentions such buzzwords as POSIX, BSD, and SVR4 in the context of the discussions, but one could safely ignore them, and just concentrate on the Linux part. The book briefly covers adding new system calls, compilinag and debugging the kernel, and even shows how to write a simple device driver - these are hard to find in one place. Overall, I found this book to be very useful for my self-paced study (the best so far), and I only wish they had a newer edition.
Rating:
Summary: Worth to buy
Review: I love this book. I would treat it as a reference book. The books contains enough content about kernel, but the worst one is lack of examples. Also, I would love the index of those system calls at the back of the book
Rating:
Summary: It's like a jini
Review: I used this book in my operating systems course, and since then I've always relied on it. I've read alot of books, but this book keeps on amazing me, it's very small still, I find every thing in it. However, it's not a uptodate(kernel 2.0), and you can't just dig and look for something, except if you have read most of it, you can't use it as a reference
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