What does it really mean when you say that Tanenbaums book is not a required purchase?
A.In principle, you don’t need it–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 the book does. Whether you would find the book useful or not depends on how much street knowledge about computer systems and computer jargon you have accumulated. We will be reading quite a number of professional papers. Some of the authors never dreamed we would be handing them to undergraduates, so they didn’t bother to define their terms, or remind their readers of the concepts; they just assume you know everything that has gone before. With a little bit of background and a certain amount of nerve, you can deal with this by guessing, asking questions, and diligently reading Prof. Kaashoek’s notes. But if you come to this course feeling somewhat clueless about computer systems in comparison with your classmates, you may find that having a copy of Tanenbau
