# Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free online, well-written introduction to operating systems that readers praise as clear, practical and genuinely educational; paid print copies are available.

## Why people recommend it

- Free, high-quality learning material (2 comments): "the authors charge for physical copies and complete documents but generally make the work content available for free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47864002)) "Free, high quality learning materials like this are an absolute treasure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479749))
- Clear, well-written and educational (3 comments): "The 3 piece book OS was very refreshing and I actually learned stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48106318)) "OSTEP is genuinely one of the best OS resources out there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479840)) "Used that book in OS classes, absolutely loved it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48479897))

## What people warn about

- Can get boring over time (1 comments): "the three piece book got very boring after a bit of reading" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48104128))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Operating Systems: Design and Implementation by Andrew Tanenbaum](https://hackerapproved.com/p/operating-systems-design-and-implementation.md): 7 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+Three+Easy+Pieces+by+Arpaci-Dusseau+and+Arpaci-Dusseau&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau", https://hackerapproved.com/p/operating-systems-three-easy-pieces/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).