Customer Reviews

Operating Systems: A Modern Perspective, Lab Update (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I am using this book because i'm taking the ugrad OS course at CU Boulder. Guess what university the author is from. yeah, that's right. This is, quite possibly, one of the worst books ever written by a human being. If, hypothetically, one were to forgive the book for blatantly incorrect examples that obviously haven't even been checked or reviewed and have spawned more than a few bewildered discussions among my fellow students and I, for rediculous project suggestions, for its condescending tone, for the obnoxious little graphics and second-rate dull grey paper on which they're printed, it still remains that the book does an atrocious job of treating the history and current practice of operating systems. It seems to be leaving us with a horribly skewed general prospective on the field and a paucity of actual knowledge--thus, not only are we ill-prepared to design an operating system, but we are worse programmers for having adopted Nutt's sick and deviant way of thinking. If this seems too vague for you, let me simply say that more than a few vague, general discussions are clearly based not on UNIX, not even on NT, but on MS-DOS. The fact that i recognize the lineage of his thinking is a major source of embarrassment for me, but I must share it with you lest this book corrupt yet more fresh young minds. Those who enjoy kneeling and worshiping before mistakes IBM made twenty years ago will get a real kick out of this book--there are detailed discussions of bizzare things IBM did on old two-ton mainframes, extensive discussions of batch job scheduling and seek algorithms for ten-inch disk packs. Yet, for the rest of us, I can only say: if you have a copy of this book, I advise you to burn it immediately. I sure wish I could. If i can save just one poor soul from this book, I will die a happy man.

The content is well organized and the relevant information seems to be present. However, a lot of the pseudocode is blatantly wrong. This would be very misleading for an initiate to operating system design and implementation, the target audience for this book. If you know enough to recognize the errors in the pseudocode, you're too advanced to be reading this book. If you know less, you shouldn't be reading this book because its errors will undermine the foundation you're hoping to build. Your money is better spent on another book.

I'm a systems researcher myself. I can't believe this book is allowed to be in publication. The writing is shoddy, and the relevancy of the material is fragmented. The poor quality is perfectly encapsulated by the two luminaries praising the book on the back cover. One is from Centre College, some liberal arts college I had never heard of; the other is supposedly a professor from the University of California, but upon closer investigation, he's only a staff member, not a real professor. This book has a second-hand feel to it throughout. If you're a student forced to use this book in college, I suggest you change colleges.

Gary Nutt's book is the most confusing approach to Operating Systems I have ever encountered. His constant and confusing mathematical definitions make the simplest topics so confusing, that Einstein or Dijkstra would throw in the towel before understanding them. I am a third year Computer Science student and I have never used a textbook this horrible. If you are a professor, PLEASE consider another textbook for your students! (That is if you want them to learn something other then how to waste money on horrible unedited textbooks)

Like the title says, this could have been better. No doubt it's difficult to write a "modern" book on operating systems in such a tumultuous area. There were blatant errors, especially in examples, and it seemed like the "In The Hangar" sections were the most relevant parts of the book. However, coupled with the "Kernel Projects for Linux" book, it is much better. If you need it for a class, you have no choice. Otherwise I'd check out books by Tanenbaum or the "dinosaur" OS books.

This is probably the worst CS book I've ever read. Nutt has a real knack for making things that can be simply stated overly complicated and confusing. There are times when he'll spend several paragraphs trying to explain something which could have been explained in several sentences. Part of the problem is he's obsessed with set notation, which can be very useful in mathematics, but is totally useless in the context of what he's talking about. Other times instead of overexplaining things he'll underexplain it, things which aren't exactly obvious. Probably the two most annoying things about the book are: 1) the incoherent way the chapters are organized, you're left with a fragmented understanding of things, making it hard to put all the pieces together, and 2) he oversimplifies concepts early on in his book, foregoing a slightly more detailed explanation until later. But the way he does it makes you wonder what the truth really is. The whole book just feels like a bunch of jumbled concepts. Just look at the front cover.. Nutt thinks he's the conductor of them. But it's not music to my ears, just one loud cacophony.

I only bought this book because it was required for my Operating Systems Design course. I find the book very difficult to follow and comprehend. The chapter exercises are frustrating because the answers to the questions are rarely in the chapter text! I know I speak for every one of my classmates when I say this is a poor textbook. If you are a professor and are reading this, PLEASE do not use this book. Find another one!

a weak attempt at an introductory text...in trying to simplify the subject too much meat has been pared from the bones...the result is a sometimes confusing and often plainly erroneous text...spend the extra seven bucks and get either stallings or tanenbaum...if you buy this book I hope it is for a wedding gift to a couple you do not like...

I usually try not to review something that several people have had the same comments about it that I have, but this book is so terrible that I feel I must help to emphasize that fact. If you're ever assigned this book in your college OS class, either drop the class immediately or ask the professor to reconsider (then drop the class). This book has absolutely no valuable information in it what-so-ever. As a matter of fact, it barely has any information in it at all. The problems and lab assignments are the most confusing ones I have ever seen. The instructions have absolutely no logic and sometimes contradict themselves. The code that is supposed to help is often completely wrong. The questions at the end of the chapters generally have little to do with the material--or lack there of--contained in the chapter (or elsewhere in the book, for that matter). Also, most of the labs that say "this is to be done in operating system x" usually cannot be done in that operating system. Additionally, different versions of operating systems (other than Windows, which apparently can be broken down into NT and non-NT anyway) don't exist--Linux is UNIX is Solaris is BSD. Perhaps if the author spent less time writing jokes and more time writing something useful this book might be worth half its weight in salt. I can't believe this sort of doorstop could ever be published by such a prestegious company as Addison-Wesley.

If you have to read it like me for a class, then there is no choice but to get it. However, if you have a choice, don't read it. Read the man pages... for they give a better understanding of it.

Take a subject, like Public Key Encryption. Search Google on how it works, read wikipedia, and all that fun reads to get a good understanding of the subject. Now read the chapter of how Nutt describes it... You will question yourself if you really understand it. Worst of all, he knows that it is confusing and tries to explain it another way, but only loses you more.

One of many examples...