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The art of Linux kernel design : illustrating the operating system design principle and implementation
Lixiang Y., Wenfeng L., Dazhao C., Tianhou L., Ruobing W., Qi S., Ke F., Tingshao Z. (trans.), Auerbach Publications, Boston, MA, 2017. Type: Book (978-1-138413-41-2)
Date Reviewed: Mar 21 2018

This book goes into a lot of detail--I mean a lot of detail. Linux kernel 0.11 is dissected and explained in a very detailed way. The reason I am hesitant to give it a high rating is not because it focuses on the 0.11 version, which is over 20 years old; rather, the book lacks a security focus. Otherwise, this is certainly a stellar book on operating systems concepts. If you have read Tanenbaum’s operating systems book on MINIX [1], this will be a very similar treatment. The code is dissected wonderfully. I cannot imagine the reverse-engineering process of understanding the code and making it easy to explain to people. However, there are many grammatical errors in the book.

The book starts with BIOS and how operating systems are bootstrapped. I really appreciate how the explanations are done--they contain a lot of source code and design diagrams. This is like a design document for the kernel. There are many diagrams and file operations, process management, inter-process communication, operating system design, and buffer management are all explained in great detail. Overall, the explanations are great and the book will be a wonderful asset to any student. Using Linux 0.11 makes it very easy to explain, as the foundations of operating systems are the same and a student can easily learn the concepts. As I said earlier, security should be taught from the beginning and this is the biggest gap in systems design and how programming is currently taught. It cannot be an afterthought.

Readers should note that this 2017 edition is the same as the 2014 edition [2]--it is a reprint. I wish the authors had updated the content. Despite this fact, the book will be an invaluable asset for any serious computer science student.

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Reviewer:  Naga Narayanaswamy Review #: CR145923 (1806-0275)
1) Tanenbaum, A. S.; Woodhull, A. S. Operating systems design and implementation (3rd ed.). Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006.
2) Lixiang, Y.; Wenfeng, L.; Dazhao, C.; Tianhou, L.; Ruobing, W.; Qi, S.; Ke, F.; Tingshao, Z. (translator) The art of Linux kernel design: illustrating the operating system design principle and implementation. Auerbach Publications, Boston, MA, 2014.
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