Operating System Theory

Operating Systems : Internals and Design Principles (5th Edition)

Format: Hardcover
Author: William Stallings
ReleaseDate: 12 July, 2004
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Rating:

Good, solid, but not Stallings' best book.
However because mine looks to be the only positive review I will probably fall into the trap of rebutting some of the other reviews. I've just finished using this book for a course and I wanted to write a review while the information was still fresh in my mind.

First of all, I usually rate Stallings' books at 5 stars - they've taught me a lot. While this one isn't his best, it's nothing to sneeze at, and better than most texts on similar subjects. The writing is drier than his other texts, but it's fairly concise and very clear, difficult to achieve with such a technical subjct matter!

One reviewer complained that it was difficult to read through in one go - well what do you expect from a book about low-level operating system architecture, it's not Agatha Christie! I found it easy to follow, learn and summarise the concepts, the questions and problems were mostly relevant (and there were a lot, so choosing a subset wasn't hard) and mostly it was pretty interesting (if you happen to like this sort of stuff).

It's one fault is it fails to cover specific coding techniques and examples on an implementation level. However since this would have to be platform- or environment-specific, that's probably on purpose. I would guess most courses would have seperate course material covering implementation, depending on what environment they were interested in or was available.

All in all it's a good book and it'll help you learn stuff. That's the point right?.

Reality check time...
. I always end up writing these reviews with some trepidation.. Am I out to convince people to buy stuff or not to buy stuff?
What is the value of reading this if it doesn't express clearly buy or not buy? Is this product worth X dollars or not?
The answer, I think, is always up to the buyer.
All I can do is brief you on my experience with the product, like this book. Most of the reviewers here have given it thumbs down and I understand some of their points.
I had to use this book because of my schools decision. . .
It is not a waste as others might have you believe.
First of all, it was excellent for exam preparation. The review questions and the vocabulary check at the end of each chapter made it a quick search and find for last minute cramming.
Further, it is written with the student in mind and that translates into pages full of very valuable info packets, easy to retrieve and reuse.
I also found this book helpful for a paper on the EROS OS and that wasn't quite as cut and dried as it sounds since the author is Windows, UNIX, and LINUX centric.
Can it be improved ? No doubt.
Is it too expensive ? Yes, but then all text books are.
Bottom line: It can be an asset to your library, depending on your particular needs. It is a good beginning text for understanding Operating Systems. .

I cannot believe this man is a graduate of M.I.T.
While the book touches on almost every type of OS design, it does so hap-hazardly, and without explaining why those designs were chosen. Its is by far the worst written textbook I have ever used. In short, Dr. Stallings writing style could use some improvement. The book is filled with wordy, redundant sentences, and pointless filler in almost every paragraph. What's worse, the book misuses list and figures - many lists have over 10 bullets (generally with a few paragraphs of explanation under them), and most of the figures are over annotated, and look too similar. Why bother to make list and figures if they must be explain by paragraph after paragraph of poorly worded pros?

. . . And it gets worse! Thought-out the whole book, Dr. Stallings fails to provide even one snippet of compliable code. The book rarely mentions how an OS designer would go about implementing his or her ideas, even though OS design is decidedly low-level - details are probably just as important as overall design for OSes.

Finally, the homework has nothing to do with what is covered in the book, and is horribly worded to boot. In one question, Stallings ask readers to ". describe exactly, in general. . . " How do I describe something exactly while keeping it general? This isn't the only question that leaves readers scratching their heads, in fact, I would say that no question is to the point, and manages to express what it is really asking.