Distributed Systems
by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Maarten Van Steen · first published 2001
52% recommend44% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Broad, university-style grounding in distributed systems fundamentals such as logical clocks and fault tolerance, explained with down-to-earth examples; suits learners wanting depth and pairs well with DDIA.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Distributed Systems," the material has been thoroughly revised and extended, integrating principles and paradigms into nine chapters: 1. Introduction 2. Architectures 3. Processes 4. Communication 5. Naming 6. Coordination 7. Replication 8. Fault tolerance 9. Security A separation has been made between basic material and more specific subjects. The latter have been organized into boxed sections, which may be skipped on first reading.To assist in understanding the more algorithmic parts, example programs in Python have been included. The examples in the book leave out many details for
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…better softwares. Automata Theory - you can understand machines more, sometimes complex logic is best representated as a simple machine. This becomes useful if you are parsing (compiler, NLP, etc) Distributed Systems - if you have ever uttered the word microservices or plan to. The below 3 maths are the main maths of computer science, most cutting edge work today employ some or all of them. Linear Algebra, Discrete…
on “Ask HN: Books/courses for self-taught programmer” ↗Code by Charlse Petzold. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs aka. SICP. Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Klepmaan. The C Programming Language by K&R. Distributed Systems by Tannebaum.
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗I've learned distributed systems from Andrew S. Tanenbaum books [1] Distributed Operating Systems Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum#Books
on “Ask HN: Recommended books and papers on distributed systems?” ↗This was my favorite back in 2008. If I can recall accurately the fundamentals it covers should still apply. Andrew S. Tanenbaum and 1 more Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (2nd Edition) 2nd Edition ISBN-13: 978-0132392273, ISBN-10: 0132392275
on “Ask HN: Recommendations for a book on Distributed Systems?” ↗The right book for the right problem. SICP isn't meant to teach you how to tackle fault-tolerance in a complex distributed system. Here is a textbook that talks about distributed systems (van Steen and Tannenbaum): https://www.amazon.ca/Distributed-Systems-Maarten-van-Steen/...
on “SICP: The only computer science book worth reading twice? (2010)” ↗I just followed the course on Distributed Systems by Maarten van Steen at the University of Twente. It was brilliant, and he has written a book on Distributed Systems. It is freely available via https://www.distributed-systems.net/index.php/books/ds3/
on “Ask HN: Recommended books and papers on distributed systems?” ↗…Data-Intensive Text Processing with MapReduce being the two I'd recommend) * Networking (Coursera has a good course) * Operating Systems (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgQo4JkN4Bw&list=PL62A66DDD3...) * Distributed Systems (I read Tanenbaum's book) * Computability
on “List of University Courses for Learning Computer Science” ↗This is a bit early for #ThrowbackThursday! More seriously, if the topic is of interest to you, I recommend Tanenbaum's book on Distributed Systems. In particular, the chapter 4 explains the rationale behind vector, or logical, clocks using very down-to-earth examples. I did not realize how time synchronization could be such a pain before reading…
on “Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System (1978) [pdf]” ↗Probably one of the more used books (by universities) on the topic is "Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms" by Tanenbaum and van Steen. I just finished a class that used this book and I understand that there are criticisms of it, but it did seem to me to be reasonable given the breadth…
on “Distributed systems theory for the distributed systems engineer” ↗It's missing the bible. Andrew Tanenbaum's Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms.
on “Distributed Systems Reading List” ↗Distributed Systems by Tanenbaum is a great complement to DDIA. It requires a more significant time and energy investment however
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗Andrew Tanenbaum's Distributed Systems is the gold standard textbook on the subject. https://www.distributed-systems.net/index.php/books/ds4/
on “Learning about distributed systems: where to start? (2020)” ↗Imho one of the best guides by far is "Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms" by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Maarten Van Steen, I have learned the deep foundamentals regarding distributed systems there.
on “Learning about distributed systems: where to start? (2020)” ↗Distributed Systems by Van Steen and Tanenbaum is very good and freely bailable: https://www.distributed-systems.net/
on “SICP: The only computer science book worth reading twice? (2010)” ↗"Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms", Andrew S. Tanenbaum
on “Free Classic Books by MIT Press on Archive.org” ↗