Which operating systems book should I go for?

Question

Hi, I'm in a confusion. For our course (1 year ago) I used Stallings. I read it. It was fine. But I don't own any operating system's book. I want to buy a book on operating systems. I'm confused!! which one to pick?

1. Modern Operating Systems (3rd Edition) ~ Andrew S. Tanenbaum (Author)
2. Operating System Concepts ~ Abraham Silberschatz , Peter B. Galvin, Greg Gagne
3. Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (6th Edition) ~ William Stallings

I've plans of getting into development of realworld operating systems : Linux, Unix & Windows Driver Development. I know that for each of these there are specific books available. But I feel one should have a basic book on the shelf.

So, which one to go for?

Answer 1

I have always been a fan of Modern Operating Systems.

I think its worth reading, keeping on the self for any future references and has some good hands-on activities, which is how I learned best.

Answer 2

I was given Operating Systems Concepts for undergraduate Operating Systems. I know the "dinosaur" book is famous, but personally I learned a lot more about operating systems, even their basic concepts, from the OS specific books used for a 600-level operating systems course in grad school.

That said, in my undergraduate course we were given these assignments (that's not my university, but my professor correctly realized these were good assignments), and I learned more from them than from the book.

Answer 3

The classic work on this is Modern Operating Systems (3rd Edition) ~ Andrew S. Tanenbaum (Author)

If you have a an extra $100.00 that you do not need.

Answer 4

Hi, all of the books listed so far are good, but none of them are my favorites (and yes, I've read them!). If I'd choose one for my bookshelf it would be The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System (2004). This book is dense (in a good way IMHO) and very much real world, so I don't recommend it as a text book. It is also "out-dated", but this is the nature of the field, yet it remains an awesome overview. If you are worried that it isn't Linux, let me assure you it doesn't really matter. This book is great because it goes through many of the intricacies of the OS subsystems and once you understand their overview you can jump into any other OS internals with confidence.