The design and implementation of the FreeBSD operating system

What Hacker News says

1. pjmlpMay 2026
   It has some pluses, I miss an updated version of "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System", but it is understable there are other priorities and putting such a book out is lots of work for very little money, given how much book authoring gives back.
   thread
2. AdieuToLogicMar 2026
   > I use FreeBSD at work every since day and while I don't hate it, I do wish we just used Linux. There are more guides, tools, etc for Linux than for FreeBSD.

   Regarding guides specifically, FreeBSD has exceptional resources:

     FreeBSD Handbook[0]
     FreeBSD Porter's Handbook[1]
     FreeBSD Developers' Handbook[2]
     The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System[3]
   

   Not to mention that the FreeBSD man pages are quite complete. Granted, I am biased as I have used FreeBSD in various efforts for quite some time and am a fan of it. Still and all, the project's documentation is a gold standard IMHO.

   0 - https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/

   1 - https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/porters-handbook/

   2 - https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/developers-handbook/

   3 - https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Design_and_Implemen...

   Show morethread
3. rganesanJul 2023
   Though a bit dated, I highly recommend "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD operating System". I have read several operating systems book classics including the book by Silbershatz and Galvin that you referred to and "Unix Internals" by Maurice Bach and the "Magic Garden Explained". I found the Design and Implementation of the BSD operating system much more readable and getting into details at just the right level.
   Show morethread
4. toast0Apr 2023
   Not sure about videos, but there's a series of books on FreeBSD called The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System; the 1996 edition with a mildy different name is freely available [1], but I recommend picking up a newer version if it resonates with you; the 2014 version covers up to FreeBSD 11, the 2004 covers up to FreeBSD 5; but there were a lot of important changes in that ten year period. It will be a little dated, but the broad strokes are still the same.

   OSTEP, linked elsewhere in the thread is good, too.

   [1] https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/design-44bsd/

   Show morethread
5. arghnonameDec 2021
   If you already know the basics of what an OS does, it's best to just get into some more detail of how it does it. "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD operating system" is a great book for the structure of a *nix system. If you understand the design of one of these systems, none of the others is hard to figure out.

   Beyond that, if you want a more academic read it's good to read up on some other architectures. This paper on the history of the L4 microkernel family is a really good discussion of the design decisions and evolution of that system that gets into some classic OS issues: https://trustworthy.systems/publications/nicta_full_text/898...

   Other kernel designs worthy of interest are exokernels and unikernels. Also with regard to systems design I've always liked "end-to-end arguments to system design" (https://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoe...) and another paper on the duality of OS structures (http://occs.oberlin.edu/~ctaylor/classes/341F2012/lauer78.pd...)

   Show morethread
6. pjmlpDec 2021
   Interesting, however if a third edition of "Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System" ever comes up, I would gladly buy it.
   thread