# Operating Systems: Design and Implementation by Andrew Tanenbaum

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Operating Systems: Design and Implementation by Andrew Tanenbaum and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for a real understanding of kernel internals and core OS concepts. Main caveat: it prints only a subset of the code.

## Why people recommend it

- Deep understanding of kernel internals (2 comments): "walk away having an genuine understanding of what's going on under the hood in a kernel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710958)) "there's a book that goes into detail about most of the important concepts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48120847))
- Preferred over other OS textbooks (2 comments): "I prefer the Tanenbaum OS books over Stallings." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46557473)) "the best operating textbook ever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48273679))

## What people warn about

- Book code is only a subset (1 comments): "Tanenbaum explicitly mentions multiple times that the book is a subset of the code because it would be too long to print" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020622))
- Code hard to build and run (1 comments): "I believed the author (like generations of other scholars) until I tried to actually build and run it myself." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020961))
- Seen as a money-making book (1 comments): "it clearly was a way to make money for him" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022621))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau](https://hackerapproved.com/p/operating-systems-three-easy-pieces.md): 11 recommend
- [Windows Internals by Russinovich, Solomon and Ionescu](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-internals.md): 6 recommend
- [Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles by William Stallings](https://hackerapproved.com/p/operating-systems-internals-and-design-principles.md): 2 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Operating+Systems%3A+Design+and+Implementation+by+Tanenbaum&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation by Andrew Tanenbaum", https://hackerapproved.com/p/operating-systems-design-and-implementation/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).