Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (5th Edition) (GOAL Series) [Hardcover]

William Stallings (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131479547 | ISBN-13: 978-0131479548 | Publication Date: July 22, 2004 | Edition: 5

This book covers concepts, structure, and mechanisms of operating systems. Stallings presents the nature and characteristics of modern-day operating systems clearly and completely. Includes major programming projects. Offers step-by-step web support with CD/Rom Resources. A basic reference for those interested in learning more about operating systems; also suitable for self-study.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Stallings has made a unique contribution to understanding the broad sweep of technical developments in computer networking and computer architecture. He has authored 18 titles, and counting revised editions, a total of 35 books on various aspects of these subjects. In over 20 years in the field, he has been a technical contributor, technical manager, and an executive with several high-technology firms. Currently he is an independent consultant whose clients have included computer and networking manufacturers and customers, software development firms, and leading-edge government research institutions.

He has six times received the prize for best Computer Science and Engineering textbook of the year from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association.

Bill has designed and implemented both TCP/IP-based and OSI-based protocol suites on a variety of computers and operating systems, ranging from microcomputers to mainframes. As a consultant, he has advised government agencies, computer and software vendors, and major users on the design, selection, and use of networking software and products.

Dr. Stallings holds a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in Computer Science and a B.S. from Notre Dame in Electrical Engineering.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 832 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 5 edition (July 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131479547
• ISBN-13: 978-0131479548
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > APIs & Operating Environments

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good reference, maybe. Not very readable!, February 14, 2005

By 

Michael Lehenbauer (Redmond, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (5th Edition) (GOAL Series) (Hardcover)

My Operating Systems course used this book and we were assigned chapters to read every week. It was incredibly painful. This book does not read well at all. The ideas aren't very well motivated. Many times, Stallings just enumerates a list of alternate strategies for solving a problem without talking AT ALL about how the strategies came or why we should think about all these different strategies in the first place. He just lists and describes them. Very dry.

I eventually stopped reading the book and just used it as a reference when doing our open book online quizzes. This worked well. It's easy to find specific information ("How does Round Robin Scheduling work?") and the explanations are reasonably clear and concise. But if you're trying to actually read it sequentially to get the general idea, you're in for some pain (and sleepiness).

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I cannot believe this man is a graduate of M.I.T., December 12, 2005

By 

Adventure1337 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (5th Edition) (GOAL Series) (Hardcover)

Its is by far the worst written textbook I have ever used. While the book touches on almost every type of OS design, it does so hap-hazardly, and without explaining why those designs were chosen. 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.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A hundred and eight dollars for THIS?!?, November 29, 2005

By 

Justin Playfair - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (5th Edition) (GOAL Series) (Hardcover)

Based on content alone I'd probably have given this book three stars. It contains a lot of outdated (read: mainframe-centric) information which I could probably overlook as an artifact of this being an old back that has been updated through the years to reflect the more PC-centric nature of the industry.

Unfortunately, I have to subtract a star because some of the problems at the ends of the chapters CAN'T BE ANSWERED BY THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THE BOOK! Yep, you heard right, it has problems that relate to concepts not covered in the book. For example, in chapter 11 there are questions (11.7, 118) about record formats on magnetic tape that requires knowledge of concepts not covered anywhere in the chapter or elsewhere in the book.

Another interesting example of this is in chapter 1, which includes some problems (1.3, 1.4, 1.5) related to hardware concepts never discussed. What's particularly interesting about these questions is that they're IDENTICAL to questions asked in a different book (by a different author, Dr. Nikitas Alexandris) titled "Computer Systems Architecture: Microprocessor-Based Designs." That book actually COVERS the topics upon which the questions are based. What a concept, huh? Hopefully Dr. Alexandris knows that the questions from his title have been "borrowed" for this one, but in any case the questions are completely out of place in this book since it doesn't give the reader the information to be able to answer them.