Review of The Operating Systems Concepts Ninth Edition Book
To start off, having knowledge about how operating systems work from a theory level perspective is very important in cybersecurity because you will probably be exposed to different kinds of operating systems such as Windows, MacOS and Linux, so having the knowledge of how operating systems work from a general standpoint is very important because you can apply that knowledge when you are working with different operating systems. For instance, it is very important to understand the file structure or the bootup process of different operating systems because knowing how the file structure is structured for different operating systems is very important in narrowing down your investigation to figure out where the infected file is, and what command line tools or regular tools is best in terms of removing this infected file pertaining to this operating system. Also, if you are able to truly take the time to learn more about operating systems and overall understand how they work, advantages and disadvantages, how to secure them etc, will be very advantageous to have when it comes to either working as a Security Operations Center Analyst on the Blue Team Side or a Penetration Tester on the red team side because you will be able to start your investigation much quickly and overall effectively because you have a solid understanding of what I previously mentioned, but also from an attacker perspective, you know where to start exploiting vulnerabilities, and which tools would be best to find and exploit those vulnerabilities because you have an understanding of operating systems in terms of file structure, processes, threads, etc.
In addition, I highly recommend this YouTube playlist on Operating Systems because it serves as a really great supplement to help you learn the content in the book that I mentioned above which I will describe more about it shortly. Coming back to discussing about the YouTube playlist and why I would recommend it as a supplement for you to better understand the content discussed in the Operating Systems Concepts 9th edition book, and I know there is a 10th edition, but for the sake of this blog, I will be focusing on discussing about the 9th edition to avoid confusion, but I would highly recommend the 10th edition in my opinion because of very clear and concise explanations, crisp diagrams etc., and overall the content is very interesting and overall enjoyable to read and learn. Pertaining to the playlist, it is very easy to follow along with the content in the textbook because it is very important to have multiple study resources when you are studying a concept such as Operating Systems because you can get exposed to different perspectives on the concept, but if one author left out a concept that you would be interested or learning or feel that this topic didn’t have enough detail that was appropriate for you, then having multiple different learning sources will greatly benefit you to overcome those difficulties. For example, let’s say you are studying for your Security+ SYO-601 or studied(before the expiration date) the SY0–501, you probably used multiple learning resources such as Jason Dion’s Udemy course and his course that comes with about 6 practice exams to test your knowledge of the concepts, but to also get exposed to the type of questions that you can expect on test day which is very important, so that way you can feel more relaxed because you’ve been exposed to the format, but also the style of questions as well. Additionally, you probably used examination books to study with as well such as Darril Gibson’s CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0–501 Study Guide and the SY0–601 version as well because you are a book person and we all have a style of learning that best suits us, so having that variety in terms of what resources is available for you to learn the content is crucially important because it helps you understand each method, and overall helps you choose which style of learning would be most effective in helping you understand the content as well.
With that being said, we will know discuss about my experience with reading and most importantly, trying to understand the style of writing to help me understand the content as best as possible and spoiler alert: the book is amazing in doing those things. To add on to that, the book is divided into 8 sections which are starting off with the first one: Overview, Process Management(Part 2), Memory Management(Part 3), Storage Management(Part 4), Protection and Security(Part 5), Advanced Topics(Part 6), Case Studies(Part 7), and last but not least, Appendices(Part 8), so just from what I mentioned, you can see that you are getting great exposure to multitude of different topics associated with Operating Systems, and most importantly, the book has been updated to reflect new topics as well(highly recommend the 10 edition for recent topics, but the 9th edition still does a very good job in keeping current). In terms of the style of writing associated with the 9th edition of the Operating Systems Concepts 9th edition book from my experience going through the book, the style is very easy to follow because the authors have worded the content in a way that is easy to grasp which is very important for a concept such as Operating Systems because some concepts such as Networking, Linux etc. can become complex, so due to the authors breaking down the content into chunks and most importantly, making the content very clear and concise, but really enjoyable to learn is a really great positive point associated with this book. Another positive about this book is that the diagrams that are associated with the concepts of this book are easy to grasp because they strike a really great balance of making sure to stay relevant to the content that is being discussed, but to portray it in a way that it can be understood, so I really like that aspect of this book because for instance for a PowerPoint Presentation or presentation in general, you want to have a blend of with words and visual images because they each serve a specific purpose in terms of what you are trying to get out using those elements.
However, I understand that with each book comes an audience that the author or authors is trying to write too, such as for example, Darril Gibson’s Security+ Study Guide books is geared towards helping people pass the Security+ exam by taking the exam objectives associated with the exam, and breaking down the concepts in a way that people who are new to the exam or are pursuing it, can have a very great understanding of the concepts, questions, etc. related to the exam to have the best chance of passing it, so I wanted to mention that before I mention what the audience is that the Operating Systems Concepts 9th edition is trying to target and overall cater to. With that being said, the audience for whom the Operating Systems Concepts book is for undergraduate or graduate students wanting to learn about Operating Systems and Operating Systems security, so you will get a very solid understanding of what Operating Systems is from a conceptual level, before you move on to a more specialized aspect of operating systems which would be security, but you will get exposure to more relevant topics associated with Operating Systems such as virtualization for instance. Associated with Operating Systems, another great resource that can be used in parallel with the playlist and book that this blog is about is the SANS DFIR Hunt Evil Poster because the company is one of the most well-known and highly respected companies in cybersecurity, but the content that they create is very high quality and definitely worth taking a look and using it as a reference because SANS makes sure that the content is updated, but easily understandable as well and the link to that is: https://www.sans.org/posters/hunt-evil/. The reason I mentioned this resource is because it will talk about one of the most important concepts to understand that is associated with operating systems which is processes associated with Windows, because it is important to understand what processes are running on a particular operating system, and how to start looking for malicious activity associated with this processes which is the main goal of this resource to get that exposure to an example of operating systems security.
In conclusion, I highly recommend getting the Operating Systems Concepts 9th edition book because knowing Operation Systems in the context of what it is, how does it function, why is it important, how to secure it, and advantages and disadvantages pertaining to operating systems is crucially important because it is one of the most important fundamental skills you can learn about to be successful in cybersecurity such as computer networking, so highly recommend this book. In addition, there is multiple different formats of the book and the prices can vary depending on where you buy your book, so find the format and price of the book that best suits you and I will believe once you start taking the time to understand and go through the content in the book, then you will have a very enjoyable time learning Operating Systems like I did. One important thing to point out is that even though this book covers a variety of topics associated with Operating Systems that I previously mentioned, it is still highly recommended to learn more about Operating Systems because of how fast technology evolves, so after you have gone through this book and overall maximized its potential, I would highly recommend taking a look and trying out the 10th edition of this book because it has the same benefits of the 9th edition book, but the main difference is the content that is being discussed because the 9th edition is from 2012, while the 10th edition is from 2018, so you will probably see some differences in terms of versions etc that I would highly recommend learning about to stay current and overall stay knowledgeable. Last but not least, I want to say thank you for reading my blog and hopefully you found it really beneficial and overall enjoyable to read.
Thank you so much,
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Joshua Speshock
