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Retirement of Prof. Andy Tanenbaum
- erkose 12y agoA wonderful contribution: Modern Operating Systems by Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
- mikevm 12y agoYes! And he released a 4th edition only a while ago. Also, I had no idea that he was the creator of http://www.electoral-vote.com/ http://www.electoral-vote.com/
- mhurron 12y agoIs it $125.75 Kindle Edition wonderful? So is this book the type of OS book that is fantastic knowledge for technical people to really know about their computer or is it really just aimed at those that want to move into OS development?
- erkose 12y agoThe book presents OS theory and is more suitable for OS developers.
- speleding 12y agoIn my opinion a well rounded developer needs a good understanding of what happens at the OS level, even if he is never going to write a device driver. Tanenbaum's books are excellent for that.
- groby_b 12y agoI'll disagree with the other reply and say that it is fantastic knowledge to have, no matter if you do OS work or not.
- justin66 12y agoOperating Systems: Design and Implementation, the Minix book that is sort of famous for inspiring Linus Torvalds, is more targeted at those who want to move into OS development. Modern Operating Systems is an amazing book but it works at a somewhat higher level. You'll basically read about stuff that happens, or might happen, in an operating system. You'll learn about threading, the elevator algorithm, dining philosophers, how virtual memory works, how a memory allocator works, and a bunch of other stuff. It's a very well written textbook. The thing that struck me was the way it introduces things at a theoretical or high level and then trusts students enough to present them with real C code and real problems to solve on the next page. Just an excellent textbook.
- robotresearcher 12y agoIt's great. Buy a used paper one. For undergrad purposes an old edition is fine and will be cheap. I teach OS using MOS, and give this advice to (several hundred by now) students.
- purringmeow 12y agoFind a used one, mine costed $7, albeit an older edition. It's an extraordinarily written textbook. For me there are 2 types of technical books - the ones that I have to plow through with sheer willpower, and the ones that I read kinda like an interesting novel. Tannenbaum's book falls in the latter category.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jgrahamc 12y agoBest wishes for an enjoyable retirement and thanks for all the great books.
- Jare 12y agoAnd maybe the only person to ever successfully troll Linus Torvalds and then get an apology from him (ok just an excuse to link the epic debate in [1]). Thanks Mr. Tanenbaum, your various works have been a huge inspiration as well as incredibly interesting to read or tinker with. [1]: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/comp.os.minix/wlhw16QWltI%5B1-25-false%5D https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/comp.os....
- famousactress 12y ago> Linus "my first, and hopefully last flamefest" Torvalds Of everything hypothesized-for-the-future in the thread, this turned out to be the least accurate prediction of them all :)
- GuiA 12y ago"Don`t get me wrong, I am not unhappy with LINUX. It will get all the people who want to turn MINIX in BSD UNIX off my back. But in all honesty, I would suggest that people who want a MODERN "free" OS look around for a microkernel-based, portable OS, like maybe GNU or something like that." Hehehe.
- yellowapple 12y agoWhat's even more amusing about that remark is that - as of MINIX3, at least - MINIX has in fact adopted the NetBSD userland.
- pionar 12y agoHe is not talking about the userland, he's talking about the kernel structure, mirco vs. monolithic.
- kjs3 12y agoYa...part of the design goal is that a microkernel as envisioned by AST should be able to able to have interchangeable userlands, including multiple different userlands running at the same time. So in that sense, AST was spot on.
- hoopism 12y agoMy MOS book was stolen from my car when I went to college. I like to think a drug addict somewhere will go on to develop the next great operating system.
- mrpippy 12y agoHe still has a Sun Blade 100 on his desk?
- codezero 12y agoI don't doubt it. When I worked at a university, some of the very old profs still had very old computers dating into the 90s. I was pretty amazed that they even worked, but most of them only ever used them once every few weeks or months.
- nawitus 12y agoApparently my university didn't switch to UTF-8 until very recently because one of the profs used an old Windows which didn't support UTF-8.
- Erwin 12y agoPerhaps he's using it just as an X server. Around 15 ago, some of the other people on my systems programming team didn't care to run a fat Linux PC desktop -- they just had a X machine that booted over the network from a "big" UNIX server and logged into to their FVWM or such environment. That's handy as you could go and login on any other X workstation and get the same desktop environment.
- codezero 12y agoLooking at the Wiki page, the Sun Blade 100 dates from 2000 to 2006, PCs from that era were reasonably powerful by most modern standards, just lacked 1) a lot of cores, 2) shitloads of memory. For most uses, they are still great for daily tasks, and at a university, he probably had access to some remote supercomputer if he really needed it :P My ageist perspective here is that what you're describing takes a bit of work and most "older" profs can't be arsed to do that work, so the simplest explanation is that he just still runs an old computer :)
- dredmorbius 12y agoLetting someone else worry about your backups and such is a benefit of centralized servers w/ remote X11 displays. Assuming you trust the network.
- winter_blue 12y agoI can't really emphasize enough how well-written his books are. I picked up some of Tanenbaum's books early in high school (specifically: Structured Computer Organization, Modern Operating Systems, and Computer Networks). They were so well-written and engaging they I could hardly take my eyes off of 'em. They really cultivated an interest and love for Computer Science in me.
- kxr 12y agoI always liked how he would crack the ocassional joke every now and then in his books. "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."
- cstross 12y agoThat's not actually a joke, once you do the math ...
- kxr 12y agoCorrect. "Joke" as in "funny statement that made me laugh."
- chc 12y agoJokes don't have to be false — it's actually in vogue these days for jokes to be accurate observations of reality stated in funny ways. For example, Louis CK's joke about the unfairness of banking fee structures: Ever get so broke that the bank charges you money for not having enough money? The bank calls up and says "Hi, we're calling because you don't have enough money." And you go, "I know!" So they say, "You have insufficient funds." "Yep, that's a good way of putting it too, I'd agree with that. I find my funds to be grossly insufficient." "You only have $20, so we're going to have to charge you $15." Fifteen dollars, that's how much it costs to own $20. But here's the fucked-up part — now I only have five. Now I don't even have the money that I paid to have. I think Tanenbaum's joke is a good example of this sort of humor.
- webbrahmin 12y ago
- bagrow 12y agoThat 'now' picture has to be pushing 20 years old...
- resca79 12y agoMy 5 cents, an email send to Tanenbaum. >Hi Professor, >I'm interested a PH.D in Amsterdam. I have worked in >Accenture Italy since one year. >There are a opportunity to PH.D in your study group? >Best Regards .. After 5 minutes >I don't have any openings. Sorry >Andy Tanenbaum This is a simple mail, but I liked his courtesy and fast response
- S4M 12y agoYeah, it's nice. Much better than just ignoring you and leaving you waiting for a reply that never comes.
- darkmighty 12y agoYou write english text with an italian accent. Bravo.
- resca79 12y agoI try to reproduce my usual speaking. I want to be coherent :D
- danielweber 12y agoOh, Tanenbaum. His book is still my OS bible.
- selimthegrim 12y agoWas that an intentional pun?
- Someone 12y agoFor those who don't get the question: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Tannenbaum http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Tannenbaum
- fasteo 12y agoBest wishes for his retirement. I have a clear memory of my first Minix[1] boot. It was in an old PC-XT (Intel 8088) with 640Kb of RAM and 10MB Hard drive. Coming from MS-DOS, this was pure black magic to me. [1] http://www.minix3.org/ http://www.minix3.org/
- arjn 12y agoI have two of his books on my shelf right now, I can see them from where I sit. Thanks Prof Tanenbaum !
- justincormack 12y agoHe is speaking about Minix at Eurobdscon later this year http://2014.eurobsdcon.org/talks-and-schedule/ http://2014.eurobsdcon.org/talks-and-schedule/
- ginsmar 12y agoI don't know you Mr. Tanenbaum, but you were my first teacher. God bless you.
- tempodox 12y agoI will never forget minix. This tiny unix booted from one floppy and ran on the Atari ST (among others). It even had a C compiler. Tanenbaum built it as an OS education tool.
- DanBC 12y agoHow does it compare to TomsRtBt? http://www.toms.net/rb/tomsrtbt.FAQ http://www.toms.net/rb/tomsrtbt.FAQ
- twotwotwo 12y agoHeh, I don't think parent's point is that minix is the most practical small UNIX option now so much as that it was a big deal for them back in their Atari ST days.
- sitkack 12y agoAs someone who was really trying to get 386BSD when I was kid, I had no idea that minix already ran on my Amiga 500. :( Time machine me would have loved to run this.
- Morgawr 12y agoAnd it is still going strong! http://www.minix3.org/ http://www.minix3.org/ Minix3 has adopted/is adopting parts of the NetBSD codebase (packages, libc, coreutils, etc etc) and is closer to the *BSD platforms than ever before. It can be considered a BSD microkernel nowadays. There's still a lot to do and packages to port/features to add, but it's getting there. Since the release of Minix3 (I think it was in 2007) the project has gone more towards the pragmatic and practical world, instead of just academia. Good stuff.
- HomebrewCC 12y agoIs it allowed for non VU students to attend his final lecture?
- Morgawr 12y agoIt says everyone is invited, so I'd assume it's not just for VU students. The Aula at the VU is pretty big and I hope there will be enough space for everybody, but regardless they won't complain if non-students join as well (at least I assume so). I really wanted to attend as well, but unfortunately I will be away from the country in those dates, you can take "my place" if you want :P
- jschulenklopper 12y agoThe Aula at the VU Amsterdam has 900 seats. With this kind of announcement (and showing up at HN) I guess the seats will be filled quickly. Registration is free, and it is polite and appreciated so the organizers know how many people they can expect, but registration is not required. Anyhow, if you want to attend the farewell lecture: show up early :-) And it would not surprise me if they relocate the lecture to a bigger auditorium nearby, if interest or registration goes way beyond 900.
- thinkling 12y agoSays it's free and open to the public, page has registration fields at the bottom.
- mox1 12y agoMy small Tanenbaum story. When Prof. Tanenbaum came to speak at my college I showed up a bit late to a very packed room. Many people were standing in the back, but it looked like there was one seat left in the first row, a few seats in. I proceeded to walk up, force everyone to stand up and politely asked everyone to move so I could use the last seat. Some old crusty professor didn't hear me , so I had to explicitly ask him to move. About 1 minute later the crusty old professor stood up, walked back behind me and started his speech :). Oops. All my classmates asked me afterward WTF was wrong with me...
- e40 12y agoReminds me of when I was at Dark Carnival in Berkeley browsing books. There was this comfy chair in the middle of the room, so I sat down to read a little of the book I was browsing. It was something by Poul Anderson, from the display next to the chair. So, I'm sitting there reading and a crowd starts to gather. I look up and a bunch of people are looking at me. There's this older gentleman closer than the others. Then, it dawned on me, it was Poul Anderson. Oops. There to sign copies of his new book.
- akshayshinde7 12y agoNever saw the guy face to face, just read his books. Thought when I'll go to US will meet him, sit for his lectures. Don't think it will happen now. :(
- jschulenklopper 12y agoAh... I really enjoyed the courses by 'ast' at the VU Amsterdam: Computer Architecture, Computer Networks and Modern Operating Systems. With respect for the other teaching staff, but Andy somehow was the modest, funny and inspiring hero of the CS department. The clarity and completeness of the books, the relevant assignments and the humor and kindness in his lectures... let's hope that his retirement doesn't stop him making contributions to the field. Unbelievable that he's been at the VU Amsterdam for 43 years. Signing up for farewell lecture now...
- mslot 12y agoFeel privileged to have studied at his department, and his lessons on microkernels and distributed operating systems are at the heart of what I do today.
- mdemare 12y agoWhen I was sixteen, I attended open house classes for computer science for both universities in Amsterdam, the UvA, and the VU. At the UvA, they let us draw Mickey Mouse in Pascal on an ancient Mac. At the VU, Andy Tanenbaum gave a lecture on operating systems, and handed out floppy disks with Minix at the end. All I knew then was DOS. Mind blown. Thank you ast!
- peter303 12y agoIn the US the university administration encourages even distinguished professors to retire in order to hire new faculty. It allows to hire another distinguished professor who will bring in more research money and quality students. Full professor slots are very limited even at the richest US colleges. A Supreme Court decision a couple decades ago prevents forced retirement of faculty at any age. But the administration guilts the professor about hurting department prestige. And the retiring professor can often negotiate some aspects of his replacement. Its resembles debates about when US Supreme Court justices should retire whom also have lifetime tenure.
- jschulenklopper 12y agoSome context: Andy Tanenbaum is born in March 1944, so already 70. That's five years after the common retirement age for his age group in The Netherlands (assuming that he paid his social taxes here). So, in all respect a well-deserved retirement... and I guess that retired or not doesn't stop him contributing to the CS field. Well, he will have less Ph.D.-students, so more time to writing, programming and lecturing!
- TomMasz 12y agoHis Computer Network book is one of the few that I never sold back to the bookstore. Mine is less than 6 feet from me right now, should I need to consult it.
- cafard 12y agoI thought that Tanenbaum's book on operating systems was an excellent example of what such a book should be.
- davidrudder 12y agoDoes anyone know if he will still run electoral-vote.com?
- smegel 12y ago"Designed and implemented MINIX, on which Linux was developed" Is that really true?
- gedrap 12y agoWell... The link is not to onion, is it? "In 1991, while attending the University of Helsinki, Torvalds became curious about operating systems[31] and frustrated by the licensing of MINIX, which limited it to educational use only. He began to work on his own operating system which eventually became the Linux kernel. Torvalds began the development of the Linux kernel on MINIX and applications written for MINIX were also used on Linux. Later, Linux matured and further Linux kernel development took place on Linux systems.GNU applications also replaced all MINIX component" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux#Creation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux#Creation
- jacquesm 12y agoThank you very much Andrew, I won't ever forget our talks at your house in Buitenveldert/Amstelveen they came at a very important point in my life and made a positive and lasting impact. You were amazingly accessible even to 'outsiders'. I regret never to have been able to study at the VU, I'd have happily done so. One thing you did is to instill a life-long habit of looking at the world as an asynchronous hard real time affair and to appreciate micro-kernels as a very elegant solution to a lot of problems.
- jestinjoy1 12y agoThe man responsible for explaining OS and Network topics for masses. The professor who "attacked" programmer. From Computer Networks Book DNS section "Take the pro domain,for example. It is for qualified professionals. But who is a professional? Doctors and lawyers clearly are professionals. But what about freelance photographers,piano teachers, magicians, plumbers, barbers, exterminators, tattoo artists, mercenaries, and prostitutes? Are these occupations eligible? According to whom?"
- wesnerm2 12y agoBesides his books on Networks and Operating Systems and his work on MINIX OS, I also recall he launched the website electoral-vote.com.
- ravich2_7183 12y agoI wonder how sweetie 𝜋 will react to this news.
- sarreph 12y agoI found the actor to portray his biopic, Stephen Tobolwsky.[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Tobolowsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Tobolowsky
- jskonhovd 12y agoThank you Prof. Andy Tanenbaum.
- fmax30 12y agoThis is one of the guys that i have learned a lot from. Even though i have never seen him nor have i ever met him. But his words still echo in my mind. Modern Operating Systems and Computer Networks , both extremely well written. They certainly did taught me alot. Here is to Prof. Tanenbaum , Thank you sir , for teaching me .Even though i've never met you nor i may ever meet you in this life but you should know that some guy from South Asia is thanking you from the bottom of his heart.