Interesting idea, might be important to brush up on the implementation rationale of Unix.

To that end there is The Design of The Unix Operating System, Bach [1]. Or A Fast File System for Unix [2]. Or The Design and Implementation of a Log-Structured File System [3]. It seems to me that files solve for the problem of how to deliver an economic memory management system, and they do it by paging cheap disk space so that it's an effective proxy for fast-but-expensive memory. Also files, with their file pointers, can certainly be used as data structures, but this 'understanding' of what each section means is clearly variable, so is best left to specific applications and it's not good to build into the system as a default. Different applications will want different structures for optimal performance...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Design-UNIX-Operating-System/dp/01320...

[2] https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/cs262/FFS.pdf

[3] https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/cs262/LFS.pdf

A classic: The Design of the UNIX Operating System by Maurice Bach. https://www.amazon.com/Design-UNIX-Operating-System/dp/01320...

I learned more about OS from this book than any academic material used at the university and gave me a good foundational handle on *NIX's.

There's also the great "The Design of the UNIX Operating System":

https://www.amazon.com/Design-UNIX-Operating-System/dp/01320...

Which is probably less relevant today in terms of directly understanding the implementation. But an interesting and enlightening read. Things were much simpler and fundamental back in the 1980s. It's easier to understand that way. Then layer on top.

I'm currently reading The Design of the UNIX Operating System [0], so this is super interesting for me to watch. I love how he creates a spellchecking program live, while being filmed.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/The-Design-UNIX-Operating-System/dp/01...

good idea, I would buy two kinds of books 1) one which aggregates all the "How do I write an OS from scratch" info under links below into one coherent whole. and 2) a tutorial on how to build a domain-specific OS, say OS that only knows to run a web-server, or OS for FPGA or Raspberry Pi, or a mobile OS that knows messaging and nothing else

1. http://www.quora.com/How-do-I-write-an-operating-system

2. http://www.quora.com/If-you-were-to-write-a-new-operating-sy...

3. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~exr/lectures/opsys/10_11/lectures/...

4. http://www.amazon.com/The-Design-UNIX-Operating-System/dp/01...

5. http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Computing-Systems-Princip...

6. http://www.returninfinity.com/baremetal.html

OK, if you don't have any real experience in low-level embedded coding (relevant to device drivers), RTOS or OS design in general, file systems, data structures, algorithms, interfaces, etc. And, if you have "hobby level" experience with Assembler, C and C++. And, if your intent is to write a desktop OS, from the ground up, without making use of existing technologies, drivers, file systems, memory management, POSIX, etc. Here's a list of books that could be considered required reading before you can really start to write specifications and code. Pick twenty of these and that might be a good start.

In no particular order:

1- http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/...

2- http://www.amazon.com/The-Answer-Book-Solutions-Programming/...

3- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-P-J-Plauger/dp/01...

4- http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

5- http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp...

6- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-In-Noel-Kalicharan/dp/...

7- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Using-Aaron-Tenenbaum/...

8- http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/...

9- http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const...

10- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Obje...

11- http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythical-Man-Month-Engineering-Ann...

12- http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-4th-Edition/d...

13- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-Tutorial-Referenc...

14- http://www.amazon.com/API-Design-C-Martin-Reddy/dp/012385003...

15- http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Programming-Interface-Handbo...

16- http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspecti...

17- http://www.amazon.com/System-Programming-Unix-Adam-Hoover/dp...

18- http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Programming-Concept-Frantisek-F...

19- http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Management-Implementations-Prog...

20- http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Filesystems-Evolution-Design-Impl...

21- http://www.amazon.com/PCI-System-Architecture-4th-Edition/dp...

22- http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Serial-System-Architecture-E...

23- http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-PCI-Express-Hardware-Deve...

24- http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Storage-Architecture-Applicatio...

25- http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Storage-Technology-Serial-ATA/dp/...

26- http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-BIOS-Developing-Extensible-Inte...

27- http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Assembly-Language-Program...

28- http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Kernel-Development-3rd-Edition/d...

29- http://www.amazon.com/Version-Control-Git-collaborative-deve...

30- http://www.amazon.com/Embedded-Software-Primer-David-Simon/d...

31- http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Embedded-Systems-C/dp/1565...

32- http://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Softw...

33- http://www.amazon.com/Operating-System-Concepts-Abraham-Silb...

34- http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Preemptive-Multitasking-Mi...

35- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Operating-System-Prentice-Hall-...

36- http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netwo...

37- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-...

38- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-IP-Illustrated-Vol-Implementation/...

39- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Vol-Transactions-Proto...

40- http://www.amazon.com/User-Interface-Design-Programmers-Spol...

41- http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Jenifer-Tidwell/d...

42- http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Jenifer-Tidwell/d...

43- http://www.amazon.com/Programming-POSIX-Threads-David-Butenh...

44- http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/software/hd-gma#d...

45- http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/architectu...

46- http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/hardware/core-b75...

47- http://www.hdmi.org/index.aspx

48- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

49- http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Device-Drivers-Sreekrishnan-...

50- http://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Softw...

51- http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Introduction-Comput...

52- http://www.amazon.com/Practical-System-Design-Dominic-Giampa...

53- http://www.amazon.com/File-Systems-Structures-Thomas-Harbron...

54- ...well, I'll stop here.

Of course, the equivalent knowledge can be obtained by trial-and-error, which would take longer and might result in costly errors and imperfect design. The greater danger here is that a sole developer, without the feedback and interaction of even a small group of capable and experienced programmers could simply burn a lot of time repeating the mistakes made by those who have already trenched that territory.

If the goal is to write a small RTOS on a small but nicely-featured microcontroller, then the C books and the uC/OS book might be a good shove in the right direction. Things start getting complicated if you need to write such things as a full USB stack, PCIe subsystem, graphics drivers, etc.

I found a good introduction on unix memory caching in chapter 3 (The Buffer Cache) of 'Design of the UNIX Operating System', http://www.amazon.com/Design-Operating-System-Prentice-Hall-... . At least it was good for me (mathematician by training, programmer by profession)

Good, but a little outdated. For general systems overview, as well as introduction to UNIX architecture, I'd actually recommend my textbook, which is the CMU intro systems book, Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective[1]. For OS theory, our OS/advanced OS textbooks are fine, but for actual implementation my coworkers recommended The Design of the UNIX Operating System[2], Linux System Programming[3], and Understanding the Linux Kernel[4].

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Randal-Br...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Design-Operating-System-Prentice-Softw...

[3] http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596009588/

[4] http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596005658/