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Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (4th Edition) (International Computer Science)

Average customer rating:

Good book
Hard to understand
Not what I expected!
Comment on 'CSI' review
Lots of content - but very wordy and reader unfriendly

Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (4th Edition) (International Computer Science)
Coulouris , Jean Dollimore , and Tim Kindberg
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (2nd Edition)
Introduction to Algorithms
Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach
Fundamentals of Database Systems (5th Edition)
Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (3rd Edition)

ASIN: 0321263545

Book Description

This new edition represents a significant update of the best-selling book, incorporating and anticipating the major developments in distributed systems technology. All chapters have been thoroughly revised and updated, including emphasis on the Internet, intranets, and middleware. New material includes coverage of large-scale applications, fault modeling and fault tolerance, models of system execution, object-orientation, and distributed multimedia systems. Discussion of security has also been brought forward in the book and integrated with other related technologies. The book includes a new chapter on distributed multimedia systems, and also provides new material on current network technologies such as IPv6, Mobile IP, and active and wireless networks. Throughout, Java and CORBA are used as the basis for most examples. This book is designed for programmers who need to learn the principles and practice of distributed system design. Readers should have an understanding of programming and elementary computer architecture, as well as a familiarity with basic operating system concepts, but the book does not require knowledge of networks.

Customer Reviews:

Good book.......2007-03-17

I use this book as a teacher, I find it very complete and simple to understand, RMI examples are fine and good to improve the learning about distributed systemps.

I'm giving this book 4 stars, this book is good and perfect as an introductory learning but I have had often to complement the content using another books as well (like Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (2nd Edition))

Hard to understand.......2007-02-28

+ sturdy construction
+ intro to many topics
+ problems at end of chapter have page reference of the answer

- shallow coverage of too many topics
- some key learning points are left to the student in an intro book
- poor formatting and organization

= an intro book that doesn't build enough on the foundations and tries to cover too much in this growing field

Not what I expected!.......2007-02-06

This book bears litthe relevance to the 'original' fourth edition book of the same name. There is no coordination with the text. Most of the concepts are explained in terms of economics not computer science, I have to wonder if the whole idea is a gross mistake or a scam. I feel cheated.

Comment on 'CSI' review.......2006-07-24

This is not really a review but a comment on one of the other reviews. I noticed that the same review for "Computer Sci Instructor 'CSI'" appears for both the 3rd and 4th editions. I don't know if his review was only entered for one of the editions, but that Amazon erroneously entered it in both editions. Perhaps, he copied the same review for both editions since he felt the same comments applied to both.

I have not read this book. I am only responding as a result of reading the various comments on these books and others on distributed computing. I rated this book as 4 stars because this field was a required item and I cannot find a mechanism to simply respond to a review (with sufficient explanation) without entering a review myself. Note, I gave it a 4 star in keeping with the average rating.

Lots of content - but very wordy and reader unfriendly.......2005-12-09

I had adopted this book to teach Distributed Systems to a senior level undergrad class. I think I may have made a mistake, not knowing before hand how hard it would be for me to read this book (despite having some background in distributed systems). The students constantly complained of it being too "Wordy" and "vague". Few generic figures and mostly all text that seemed to be a rehash of several IEEE/ACM papers without giving sufficient examples or explanation. Some times, the authors did indeed explain some concepts with examples. At other times, they just left the concepts in vague mathematical notation or arcane definitions expecting the readers to make sense of it. While the english is grammatically correct, it is written in such a stuffy academic style that I found myself having to read most paragraphs twice or thrice before I could figure out what the author was trying to say. At times, I was thinking the authors should have been lawyers instead. (If the authors are reading this .. please consider the maxim: A picture is indeed worth a thousand words). A side note: I am not averse to reading academic papers. I do that all day long. But I just don't think a textbook should be written in that style.

On the pro side: This book has lots of content related to distributed systems - and that was one of the reasons I adopted it. However, what's the point if that content is unreadable? My recommendation would be other books such as Tanenbaums Distributed Systems book (it has lesser content, but more readable and suited for undergraduate level).

I give it high marks for the good content, but very low marks for the style of narration and presentation.

Principles of Distributed Database Systems (International Edition)

Average customer rating:

Principles of Distributed Database Systems (International Edition)
Ozus M. Tamer
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FJNGSE

Product Description

International Edition, Second Edition, Indexed

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