The grapevine around our dorm says that there is a book by Tanenbaum that every 6.033 student needs, but it isn in the reading list. Why not?
A.The book in question is Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems (Prentice-Hall: 1992). Before we had much in the way of class notes written, we listed Tanenbaum as a required textbook, and then as we accumulated more class notes we listed it as a non-required but suggested book. The class notes are farther along now, and we started getting reports from students that they didn’t get enough use out of the book to be worth the cost. So we aren’t recommending it except in some special cases. 6.033 comes with notes, papers, and instructors and teaching assistants who get their kicks by showing off how much they know in answering questions on the most trivial of details. And that is what Tanenbaum’s book does. Whether you would find it useful or not depends on how much street knowledge about computer systems and computer jargon you have accumulated. We will be reading a number of professional papers. Some of the authors never dreamed we would be handing their papers to undergraduates
