Operating Systems: A Systematic View (6th Edition) (Hardcover)

by William S. Davis (Author), T.M. Rajkumar (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This sixth edition provides students with an applied introduction to the principles of operating systems while guiding them through most operating systems used today. Aimed at students who are interested in using, rather than designing, computer operating systems and networks, the text is designed to show why operating systems are needed and what they do. This book takes students through the principles of OS and illustrates them with a wealth of examples.

From the Back Cover
The fifth edition of Operating Systems: A Systematic View offers a practical and applied introduction to operating system concepts, aimed at people interested in using computers, operating systems, and networks. The authors take a "systematic view" of the subject, where they provide insight into what is going on beneath the surface instead of focusing so much on OS theory. The intent is to show why operating systems are needed and what, at a functional level, they do. The book features an engaging, reader-friendly presentation written at a pace and level appropriate for novices, and contains extensive illustrations to visually reinforce concepts. Readers are guided through some of today's most widely used operating systems, including Linux, UNIX, and Windows 2000. Also included is coverage of several modern topics and technologies, with chapters on the Windows interface, Intel Pentium architecture, and Windows internals, as well as a section on network operating systems with chapters on client/server networks, Windows 2000, Novell, and the Internet. This book is designed for people from non-technical fields and backgrounds who simply need to know how to interact with, rather than how to design, an operating system. It requires no background in programming and only a working knowledge of basic algebra. It will also be of interest to computer programmers, technical managers, and applied practitioners who want a practical and applied introduction to operating systems. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 6 edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321267516
• ISBN-13: 978-0321267511
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,661 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only book to meet its audience's needs, February 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Operating Systems: A Systematic View (Hardcover)

While this text is getting old, it is still relevant. The concepts presented are still of primary concern. It nicely takes the student thru a simple OS and thru complex ones, e.g. UNIX and IBM's MVS, to introduce virtual memory, paging, scheduling, resource contention, and so forth. And, the student does not need 3 years of CS courses to get thru the book. For a 2 year course, or for those needing to know about Operating systems, but not the "gory" details of coding them, this is an excellent work.

I have been teaching with it since the second edition. It took a long time to find a book like this. The student workbook is an excellent addition as well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book off it's type., August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Operating Systems: A Systematic View (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a text that only covers Microsoft operating systems then this is not your book. BUT, if you want a book to teach the fundamentals of an operating system as a platform for today's bread and butter applications(AR, AP, BILLING, SA, INVENTORY, ETC) then this is super. The current world of new computer-ist they only know/learn the Microsoft systems. The bulk of processing done today is still in the backrooms with mainframe & midrange range systems using MVS, VM, VME, UNIX(and similars), and OS/400s, which Microsoft Win/95/98/NTs don't touch. This is for the student that must interface with the total computer industry not just word processing and INTERNET. It should be complimented with a good Win/98/NT bible type book.

I do wish it was updated a little.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent breadth and clarity, organization and details wanting, May 15, 2006

By	Imad Hussain (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Unlike other OS books I've seen, A Systematic View is a clearly written, concise introduction to the foundations of operating systems -- or at least the first few chapters are. As noted by other reviewers, the book doesn't know where to go after the first section -- it meanders into too-brief-to-be-useful hands-on tutorial sections for the middle portion, then moves on to touch open a few particulars with a few popular systems in a way remniscent of excerpts from a heavier text before concluding with a section on distributed computing (the bulk of which concerns remote file access via CIFS/SMB). Scattered amongst the latter half of the book are some decent portions on virtual memory and x86 architectural features.

The book would benefit greatly from having the tutorials moved to online appendices, the OS-specific analysis moved to standard appendices, and the core principles delved into more deeply. Davis and Rajkumar could also do with a few more technical proofreaders; while grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors are kept to a minimum, terminology is used oddly at best throughout the work with many of the "real-world" examples being flat-out wrong.

Reservations aside, I have not found a more approachable introductory/survey text. It's just a pity that there are so many problems with it even in the 6th edition. With a bit of work this could be a respectable upper-division text, but at the moment I can only recommend it for two-year technical/community colleges.