6 ms·

Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces

303 points by jamesjue 8y ago

wanghan1110 8y ago
This is good!
dang 8y ago
2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10182727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10182727 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7076973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7076973
tonysdg 8y ago
Using this textbook right now for my grad-level OS class (I'm a student). Definitely one of the most readable textbooks I've ever used -- the authors actually try to impart some personality into the writing. I'm not 100% sold on how they divide the book into 3 parts -- virtualization, concurrency, persistence -- since not everything in an OS fits precisely into one section (e.g., multi-core scheduling is in virtualization but could also fall under concurency). Still, for the price (free/$10 enhanced PDF/$22 softcover) I'd heartily recommend this book to anyone, and I hope it quickly becomes the standard OS book.
enitihas 8y ago
This is a really really good book on Operating Systems. Before this I had read (http://codex.cs.yale.edu/avi/os-book/OS9/slide-dir/index.html http://codex.cs.yale.edu/avi/os-book/OS9/slide-dir/index.htm...), which is itself a really good book, but this one seemed more funnier and less dry, and I think reading two OS books gives you a little different perspective from each.
- dfee 8y ago
  I was looking for the dinosaur os book in this thread!
wenbin 8y ago
I took Remzi's (one of the authors) advanced os course when I was in Wisc as a graduate student 8 years ago. I would say it's the best course I've ever had.
doctorsher 8y ago
I love this book so much. It is a treasure. You can tell from the text the Remzi and Andrea are natural educators, and their sense of humor makes you want to read more. Years ago when I used this book, I was blown away by the clarity and concision of their explanations for non-trivial technical content. In particular, their treatment of scheduling stuck out to me. To my knowledge, no other OS textbook explains scheduling in such an intuitive way -- the typical treatment is more like "meh, here's the zoo of scheduling algorithms". In this book, they start with a long list of workload assumptions, and discuss the optimal scheduling policies under these assumptions. As they relax assumptions, the optimal scheduling policy changes. Also, OSTEP seems to be in a better position to solicit feedback from readers / professors using the book than other operating systems textbooks. Remzi was quite prompt and appreciative when I sent some suggestions.
seawlf 8y ago
I took the class this textbook is used for a couple of years ago at UW. Andrea was a fantastic teacher and it was the easiest presentation of the material I'd ever found! Seriously, read this textbook. It's full of wit and information.
fermienrico 8y ago
I’ve been studying Real-time operating systems (RTOS) and it’s fascinating. While they’re incredibly basic, they offer a stepping stone into larger more complex systems with file system, multi core, etc. RTOSes emphasize on “real-time” or predictability while general operating systems, they focus on throughput. I recommend looking at FreeRTOS source code or building one from scratch.
Entalpi 8y ago
Hands down one of the best textbooks on a CS topic that I have read. It was actually FUN to read. If your trying to get started in OS fundamentals and such this is a great book to start with.
malvosenior 8y ago
It's not clear from the headline, but version 1.0 of the book has just been released: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html Available on Amazon as of today.
tatoalo 8y ago
I've used it for my university course regarding OS. But after the theorical approach I've found incredibly useful to work directly with the OS-level code (JOS OS, pretty fun), if someone is interested: https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/ https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/
- monocasa 8y ago
  Oh neat, JOS is an exokernel I haven't seen before.
  - tatoalo 8y ago
    Virtual Memory Management seems like magic before looking at the code, that feeling remains a little bit even after gazing at it if you ask me :)
    - monocasa 8y ago
      Yeah, exokernels tend to do VM management in a more split way than you might see in other OSs that might be obfuscating the underlying concepts. I'd take a look at how xv6 does it, as that's about as simple as it gets.
mad_vill 8y ago
I took this course at UW undergraduate and it was by far the most important and enjoyable class I took in college. Always read the footnotes in the text ... they are hilarious.
petecooper 8y ago
From a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18104600 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18104600
- pronoiac 8y ago
  You just linked the parent thread. It did come up in a conversation about xv6: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17592560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17592560
  - petecooper 8y ago
    You're quite right -- mea culpa.
notsrg 8y ago
One of the best CS textbooks I've ever read. I recently reached out to my OS prof because I couldn't remember the title. Funny to see it posted on HN a couple days later.
jiveturkey 8y ago
Surely this is some kind of joke. What, a college textbook that doesn't require the purchase of a new edition every year, or local insert that isn't part of the public text, or online homework code? Yeah, right.
- NegativeLatency 8y ago
  This was my profs book: http://linear.ups.edu http://linear.ups.edu I still ended up buying the hardcopy, but it was nice having it online for free. Sophomore year of college I released that I could buy a nice iPad, torrent my course books, and come out ahead. The online homework code is such a racket.
randomname2 8y ago
Great textbook
lgunsch 8y ago
I've been reading it in my spare time for a few years now (I read slow). I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a lot.
sitzkrieg 8y ago
I bought and read the hardcover (0.91) and it was great, but the new version has enough new stuff i wont feel bad buying another softcover copy, while happily supporting the authors.
aqibgatoo 8y ago
This is the best book on os handsdown. Does anybody know smiliar kinds of books for computer science subjects

303 points by jamesjue 8y ago

This is good!

dang 8y ago

2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10182727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10182727 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7076973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7076973

tonysdg 8y ago

Using this textbook right now for my grad-level OS class (I'm a student). Definitely one of the most readable textbooks I've ever used -- the authors actually try to impart some personality into the writing. I'm not 100% sold on how they divide the book into 3 parts -- virtualization, concurrency, persistence -- since not everything in an OS fits precisely into one section (e.g., multi-core scheduling is in virtualization but could also fall under concurency). Still, for the price (free/$10 enhanced PDF/$22 softcover) I'd heartily recommend this book to anyone, and I hope it quickly becomes the standard OS book.

enitihas 8y ago

This is a really really good book on Operating Systems. Before this I had read (http://codex.cs.yale.edu/avi/os-book/OS9/slide-dir/index.html http://codex.cs.yale.edu/avi/os-book/OS9/slide-dir/index.htm...), which is itself a really good book, but this one seemed more funnier and less dry, and I think reading two OS books gives you a little different perspective from each.

dfee 8y ago
I was looking for the dinosaur os book in this thread!

wenbin 8y ago

I took Remzi's (one of the authors) advanced os course when I was in Wisc as a graduate student 8 years ago. I would say it's the best course I've ever had.

doctorsher 8y ago

I love this book so much. It is a treasure. You can tell from the text the Remzi and Andrea are natural educators, and their sense of humor makes you want to read more. Years ago when I used this book, I was blown away by the clarity and concision of their explanations for non-trivial technical content. In particular, their treatment of scheduling stuck out to me. To my knowledge, no other OS textbook explains scheduling in such an intuitive way -- the typical treatment is more like "meh, here's the zoo of scheduling algorithms". In this book, they start with a long list of workload assumptions, and discuss the optimal scheduling policies under these assumptions. As they relax assumptions, the optimal scheduling policy changes. Also, OSTEP seems to be in a better position to solicit feedback from readers / professors using the book than other operating systems textbooks. Remzi was quite prompt and appreciative when I sent some suggestions.

seawlf 8y ago

I took the class this textbook is used for a couple of years ago at UW. Andrea was a fantastic teacher and it was the easiest presentation of the material I'd ever found! Seriously, read this textbook. It's full of wit and information.

fermienrico 8y ago

I’ve been studying Real-time operating systems (RTOS) and it’s fascinating. While they’re incredibly basic, they offer a stepping stone into larger more complex systems with file system, multi core, etc. RTOSes emphasize on “real-time” or predictability while general operating systems, they focus on throughput. I recommend looking at FreeRTOS source code or building one from scratch.

Entalpi 8y ago

Hands down one of the best textbooks on a CS topic that I have read. It was actually FUN to read. If your trying to get started in OS fundamentals and such this is a great book to start with.

malvosenior 8y ago

It's not clear from the headline, but version 1.0 of the book has just been released: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/combined.html Available on Amazon as of today.

tatoalo 8y ago

I've used it for my university course regarding OS. But after the theorical approach I've found incredibly useful to work directly with the OS-level code (JOS OS, pretty fun), if someone is interested: https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/ https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/

monocasa 8y ago
Oh neat, JOS is an exokernel I haven't seen before.
- tatoalo 8y ago
  Virtual Memory Management seems like magic before looking at the code, that feeling remains a little bit even after gazing at it if you ask me :)
  - monocasa 8y ago
    Yeah, exokernels tend to do VM management in a more split way than you might see in other OSs that might be obfuscating the underlying concepts. I'd take a look at how xv6 does it, as that's about as simple as it gets.

mad_vill 8y ago

I took this course at UW undergraduate and it was by far the most important and enjoyable class I took in college. Always read the footnotes in the text ... they are hilarious.

petecooper 8y ago

From a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18104600 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18104600

pronoiac 8y ago
You just linked the parent thread. It did come up in a conversation about xv6: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17592560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17592560
- petecooper 8y ago
  You're quite right -- mea culpa.

notsrg 8y ago

One of the best CS textbooks I've ever read. I recently reached out to my OS prof because I couldn't remember the title. Funny to see it posted on HN a couple days later.

jiveturkey 8y ago

Surely this is some kind of joke. What, a college textbook that doesn't require the purchase of a new edition every year, or local insert that isn't part of the public text, or online homework code? Yeah, right.

NegativeLatency 8y ago
This was my profs book: http://linear.ups.edu http://linear.ups.edu I still ended up buying the hardcopy, but it was nice having it online for free. Sophomore year of college I released that I could buy a nice iPad, torrent my course books, and come out ahead. The online homework code is such a racket.

randomname2 8y ago

Great textbook

lgunsch 8y ago

I've been reading it in my spare time for a few years now (I read slow). I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a lot.

sitzkrieg 8y ago

I bought and read the hardcover (0.91) and it was great, but the new version has enough new stuff i wont feel bad buying another softcover copy, while happily supporting the authors.

aqibgatoo 8y ago

This is the best book on os handsdown. Does anybody know smiliar kinds of books for computer science subjects