Product: 0201187604

This is a review of the 5th and 6th editions of Operating Systems Concepts, by Avi Silberschatz and Peter Galvin; Greg Gagne was their co-author on the 6th edition. More recent editions are available which I haven’t yet read. For readers of this review, the main advantage of the 5th and 6th editions is that you can buy them very cheaply here on Amazon.com from a 3rd-party bookseller. For example, at this very moment, I see that a used copy of the 6th edition can be picked up for only $2.48 before shipping and handling. That is the bargain of year! If you can afford a newer edition, by all means, go for it.

Anyway, even in spite of their having been superseded by more recent editions, the 5th and 6th editions are each an excellent introduction to operating systems concepts. It is to be hoped that CIS and MIS majors will use this book in their introductory course on operating systems, instead of a book that focuses only on Windows. IT, MIS and networking professionals whose only experience with operating systems has been the desktop and/or server version of Microsoft’s or Apple’s OSes, or Linux, should also read – and re-read – this book. It will make them more well-rounded professionals and enable them to recognize and intelligently consider issues that need to be looked at from an operating systems perspective. Other professionals will benefit from reading (and re-reading this) this book too. For example, product managers at telcos who make product catalog decisions about routers, PBXes, smartphones, or any other equipment that runs an operating system, will benefit from this book too, since it will enable them to factor operating system considerations into their decision-making process.
Rating: 5
0201187604
Count: 9