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

excellent coverage of the principles and components of an OS. Note that it is targeting the developer, not the sys-admin so I had to adjust the content for my students. ( )

The book gives an elaborate description of the major algorithms and concepts which are used in operating systems.

Most of the book is written on a very abstract level which often makes the descriptions hard to understand. Often the text raises questions which are then left unanswered. This is done to illustrate that certain concepts may lead to problem at a later point. However, this lack of specificity often gave me a bad feeling. The last two chapters try to be more specific by looking at Linux and Windows. Unfortunately, especially the last chapter on Windows only skims through this extremely complicated software system, which I then again perceived as too abstract (to be fair, in this chapter I only read the first 20 pages). On the other hand, some of the concepts are well and carefully explained on this abstract level.

In my opinion the text is long winded. In part this may be because it contains information that I already knew or did not find interesting (e.g., Section 4.1. on file naming conventions). Another reason may be that there is quite a bit repetition between the chapters (I would have found it sufficient to learn once that the RockRidge CD-ROM standard is named after some town from a Hollywood movie; also several technicalities are repeated over and over). Often the wording is wired, so that you have to read things twice to get an idea (which is normal with technical texts), but then you still think: "Why would anyone choose these words?"

As a final pro: Small parts of the book contain ironical or queer remarks which are really funny. However, until now I could not figure out why chapter 13 is placed before chapters 10 and 11. And what happened to chapter 12? (It is not in the book; maybe the publisher is to blame)

I only looked at the exercises (note: there are quite a few) in Chapter 1 and the first few in Chapter 2, but they showed the same lack specificity as the main text and are hardly enlightening. ( )

One of my favorite courses in college, this book was a reasonable addition to the course. Nothing too complex, easy to understand. Not much more you could ask for. ( )

Bravo! ( )