o.s. bridge between academia and reality
This paper presents a different approach to solving the dilemma of balancing the theory and the practice in an undergraduate operating systems course. We are in the process of implementing a laboratory that allows students to experiment with a copy of the 386BSD Unix System. Students are guided through exercises with increasing complexity, from a single exercise of initializing a new file system to more complicated team projects. The laboratory does not require a set of machines dedicated to the Operating Systems Class which is the reason many instructors choose to use simulators or small academic operating systems. This is accomplished through the use of recent removable disk technology that provides enough speed and capacity to load the source code of a real system. This approach provides a more in-depth study of a system students are more likely to encounter when they leave school. It also allows students to work in teams in an environment closer to the real world and provides a strong foundation for students wishing to enter graduate school with intentions to specialize in the area of operating systems development.
paper theory practical operating system systems process laboratory student experience exercise complexity file systems teams project class use simulation technologies capacities environments intent developer source-code