Title Modern Operating Systems, 2nd Edition Author Andrew S. Tanenbaum Publisher Prentice Hall Publication Date February 2001 ISBN 0130313580 Price $84 (U.S.) Pros Interesting coverage of Windows 2000 and Linux operating system internals. Cons Cost. Verdict This college-level text makes an excellent addition to your reference bookshelf.

The first 10 chapters lay the theoretic groundwork of operating system theory. Topics covered here include memory management, process scheduling, I/O and file systems. Then comes the highlight of this book (and the reason I think many of you will be interested in it): the case studies section. For the next 200 pages, Tanenbaum dives into Unix/Linux and Windows 2000. In each case study, the author explains in detail how these operating systems function internally and provides practical examples for the theoretical concepts that have preceded it. (Those of you that understand the history of Linux will see the sense of irony in having Tanenbaum cover Linux, since Linus Torvalds' original plans for Linux were to produce a production version of Tanenbaum's educational operating system MINIX, which was based on UNIX.)

This information isn't just for students. Developers on either the Linux or Windows 2000 platforms can learn how their chosen OS works internally and thus how to better work with it. Administrators of these platforms need a good understanding of what is happening under the covers of the operating system in order to resolve issues and also to provide performance tuning as needed. Many of you will be familiar with the Inside Windows 2000 book, which in many ways covers similar ground to this one. That book doesn't have the same general theoretical OS background within, nor obviously does it have coverage of UNIX/Linux implementation.

In the case of Windows 2000, the book starts with a history of the product that goes right back to the first IBM PC and MS-DOS 1.0, one of the operating systems that accompanied it. It then discusses the Win32 API (contrasting its comprehensive approach to the minimal UNIX philosophy), the registry and the basic operating system structure -- the HAL, the kernel and the various subsystems within the executive. Then the implementation of processes, threads and fibers are described together with how scheduling works within the operating system. The structure of NTFS and the MFT (Master File Table) are covered, including how exactly compression and encryption are accomplished within NTFS. Lastly it covers the fundamental concepts of security within Windows 2000, such as access tokens, DACLs (discretionary ACLs) and SACLs (system ACL).

Sure, Modern Operating Systems isn't going to help you pass a particular certification exam or provide a source of easy reading for the bus trip to work. However, we in IT do need to keep ourselves current with the latest technologies -- not just how to use them but, for best results, how they are designed to work. This is a classic text that you can review once and delve into as needed as a reference book later.

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