OSDev.org

What college courses covering operating system design and implementation are available online or as a distance learning option, specially those that involve coding rather than just theory? I would prefer to formally enroll in an online or distance learning course though I could "audit" one if the course materials including videos of the lectures are publicly available. Are there any that have published their materials including handouts and preferably videos of the lectures online?

I am based in the Northeastern US (western Massachusetts).

Thanks.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=online+operating+systems+course

I doubt that any good schools wold just let you enroll for just an OS course though. I also doubt that you're ready for OS development if you need a code orientated lesson taught by an instructor. The coding part of OS development is not much different then any other C development projects, so the basic concepts shouldn't be new. If you can't turn a theory\concept into code then you won't be able to get anywhere as a developer in general, let alone OS development.

Rudster816 wrote:http://lmgtfy.com/?q=online+operating+systems+course

I doubt that any good schools wold just let you enroll for just an OS course though. I also doubt that you're ready for OS development if you need a code orientated lesson taught by an instructor. The coding part of OS development is not much different then any other C development projects, so the basic concepts shouldn't be new. If you can't turn a theory\concept into code then you won't be able to get anywhere as a developer in general, let alone OS development.

I find that I am much more motivated being formally enrolled in a course. The hard assignment deadlines and the interaction with TAs are of significant help for some of us. I have just finished a Unix Systems programming course with Harvard Extension and before that one of their C programming courses, so I am speaking from experience (albeit limited).

Yo:

I really, really don't recommend having your hobby tainted by formalized academic structure and inexperienced (but strongly opinionated) lecturers who speak with much authority, knowing little. I really recommend you take it on as a self-study exercise.

--Good luck
gravaera

I had an Operating Systems course when I was studying for my Computer Science degree and it was a lot of fun!

It seemed a little rushed, but we covered a lot. Two weeks on file system design (i-nodes, lazy allocation, distributed file systems, journalism). A week on user isolation and access control (raising interesting questions such as how historically it was about about protecting program data from users, and now with desktop operating systems we're more concerned about protecting user data from programs). We also covered process scheduling algorithms, interrupt handling, real time systems, IO scheduling (first come first serve, nearest first, elevator algorithm), hypervisors.

It'll be mostly theory, so don't expect to learn how to set up page directories (though you'll learn what paging, virtual memory, segmentation is), how to enter long mode, or set up your GDT. You will learn a lot and each lecture will just inspire you with ideas for your own OS!

Our semester long assignment however what to write an EXT2 driver for Linux.

MessiahAndrw wrote:Our semester long assignment however what to write an EXT2 driver for Linux.

The pinnacle of uselessness at first glance, not even half bad at the second. I guess that kind of assignment teaches you much of the internals.