Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces (original) (raw)

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Welcome to Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces (now version 1.10 -- seebook news for details), a free online operating systems book! The book is centered around three conceptual pieces that are fundamental to operating systems: virtualization, concurrency, and persistence. In understanding the conceptual, you will also learn the practical, including how an operating system does things like schedule the CPU, manage memory, and store files persistently. Lots of fun stuff! Ormaybe not so fun?

This book is and will always be free in PDF form, as seen below. For those of you wishing to BUY a copy, please consider the following:

Lulu Hardcover (v1.10): this may be the best printed form of the book (it really looks pretty good), but it is also the most expensive way to obtain the black book of operating systems (a.k.a. the comet book or the asteroid book according to students). Now just: $39.75 Amazon Softcover (v1.10): Same book as softcover above, but printed through Amazon CreateSpace. Now just: $28.27 (but works with Prime shipping) Downloadable PDF (v1.10): this is a nice convenience and adds things like a hyperlinked table of contents, index of terms, lists of hints, tips, systems advice, and a few other things not seen in the free version, all in one massive DRM-free PDF. Once purchased, you will always be able to get the latest version. Just: $10.00 Kindle (still v1.00): Really, just the PDF and does not include all the bells and whistles common in e-pub books.

Warning: Some resellers on Amazon buy old versions of the books and claim to sell them as “new” on Amazon (click here for an example); buy from them at your own risk. In general, buy either directly from Lulu.com or Amazon.com (not a reseller). For Amazon, go to this page and look for Seller Information to be Amazon.com.

Merch: Can't bear to go out in public without OSTEP? How about anOperating Systems: Three Easy Pieces T-shirtor laptop stickeror bathmator blanketor mugor check out the whole store?

Donate: By popular demand, another way to support this site and its contents: donate! Click to donate$1 -$10 -$20 -$50 - or click here to donate any amount you want! Your donation helps keep this book going. Think about it: if everyone who came to this website donated just one dollar, we'd have at least three dollars. Thanks!

Another way to help the book out: cite it! Here is the BiBTeX entry (seen below); you can also link to the site of thebest free operating systems book on the market.

Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces
Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau
Arpaci-Dusseau Books
November, 2023 (Version 1.10)

And now, the free online form of the book, in chapter-by-chapter form (now with chapter numbers!):