[TOS] open-source textbook on OS principles (BY-SA)

[Max Hailperin]

I've released a revised version of my OS textbook as an open-source project using a Creative Commons BY-SA license with LaTeX source of the book in a public github repository.

Matt Jadud learned about this today on the SICGSE Members mailing list and suggested that I ought to join the TeachingOpenSource list and use my introducing-myself message as an additional way to get word out about the book.

The actual contents of the book are rather agnostic about open source -- I included examples and projects both from open source systems and from proprietary ones.  In that regard, my book doesn't stand out much from others.  What's unusual is that the text itself is now open, not just for use, but also for enhancement by a broader community.

The book in question is "Operating Systems and Middleware: Supporting Controlled Interaction."  (Despite the title, it is a reasonably traditional book on operating systems principles; the middleware content is comparatively minor.) The starting point page is at https://gustavus.edu/+max/os-book/ and has such things as a ready-to-read PDF version as well as a link to the github source repository.

I hope we'll hit a point where others make their own improvements and extensions and share them back, rather than this forever remaining "my" book.  The community at large is definitely more knowledgeable and capable than I am.  Short of that, though, I hope readers will at least continue to post "issues" that they discover with the text to the github issues list, so that I, or someone else, can make the improvements to address those issues.  Recognizing a need for improvement is a valuable contribution, just the same way that carrying the improvement out is.

Thanks in advance; I look forward to interacting with other teachers on this list.

 -Max Hailperin
  Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
  Gustavus Adolphus College
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