As its authors accurately state, “[this] text continues to focus on using, rather than designing.” The text contains five sections and four appendices, covering some 600 pages.

Part 1 is called “System Resources,” with chapters discussing computer hardware, application software, and linking hardware components. Part 2 covers basic operating system concepts, with two chapters covering user interfaces (UIs) and the file system, and resource management. Part 3, on communicating with the operating system, has chapters on Microsoft disk operating system (MS-DOS) commands, the Windows user interface, and the Unix/Linux UI. Part 4 is on operating system internals, containing chapters on the Intel architecture (18 pages), MS-DOS (20 pages), Windows XP (25 pages), Unix/Linux (28 pages), Macintosh operating system X (Mac OS X) (22 pages), and multiple virtual storage (MVS) (26 pages). The final section, on networks, consists of chapters on data communications, the Internet, client/server information systems (IS), Windows server, Linux, and Novell Netware.

The style of writing is pedantic and flat. The text is filled with illustrations that are often not necessary, and sometimes almost insulting: why does an illustration simply reproduce the Windows XP Start menu, for example (page 181), or show the floppy disk format dialog (page 187)? This is a textbook, not OS for idiots.

Many topics are not covered in adequate depth for a university course. As only a single example, one can search through the text for a discussion of memory management. Yes, it is to be found, but the implications, for example, of different paging memory management schemes, and their trade-offs, will not be addressed.

The review questions at the end of each chapter could easily be deleted; they will be ignored by any intelligent college student. The exercises at each chapter end vary wildly. At one extreme, you will find the instructions: “If you have not already done so, work through the chapter tutorial.” Most exercises are pedantic usage reviews, which do little to stimulate intellectual reflection.

The textbook market for undergraduate operating systems (OS) courses is crowded. This has become only truer, as community colleges now market hands-on Windows use as OS practice and theory, a practice I would cite as potential fraud in advertising. This can make textbook selection for university instructors new to teaching the subject daunting.

This is the background for the apparent continuing success of this book, now in its sixth edition. As the authors state, and as noted above, “the text continues to focus on using, rather than designing.” As such, it is appropriate for use in community college courses, or perhaps advanced placement (AP) high school instruction.

While I have not done a detailed comparison with the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) guidelines, I would be cautious. My feeling is that this book would not meet the needs of an undergraduate course in computer science; I would suggest other books over this one [1,2].