Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the many people without whom this book would not have been possible.

Claudia Salzberg Rodriguez: I would like to note that it is oftentimes difficult, when faced with a finite amount of space in which to acknowledge people, to distinguish the top contributors to your current and well-defined accomplishment from the mass of humanity which has, in countless and innumerable ways, contributed to you being capable of this accomplishment. That being said, I would like to thank all the contributors to the Linux kernel for all the hard work and dedication that has gone into developing this operating system into what it has becomefor love of the game. My deepest appreciation goes out to the many key teachers and mentors along the way for awakening and fostering the insatiable curiosity for how things work and for teaching me how to learn. I would also like to thank my family for their constant love, support, and for maintaining their enthusiasm well past the point where mine was exhausted. Finally, I wish to thank Jose Raul, for graciously handling the demands on my time and for consistently finding the way to rekindle inspiration that insisted on giving out.

Gordon Fischer: I would like to thank all the programmers who patiently explained to me the intricacies of the Linux kernel when I was but a n00b. I would also like to thank Grady and Underworld for providing excellent coding music.

We would all like to thank our superb editor, Mark L. Taub, for knowing what was necessary to make the book better every step of the way and for leading us in that direction. Thank you for being constantly and simultaneously reasonable, understanding, demanding, and vastly accessible throughout the writing of this book.

We would also like to thank Jim Markham and Erica Jamison. Jim Markham we thank for his early editorial comments that served us so well throughout the rest of the writing of the manuscript. Erica Jamison we thank for providing us with editorial feedback during the last version of the manuscript.

Our appreciation flows out to our reviewers who spent so many hours reading and making suggestions that made the book better. Thank you for your keen eyes and insightful comments; your suggestions and comments were invaluable. The reviewers are (in alphabetical order) Alessio Gaspar, Mel Gorman, Benjamin Herrenschmidt, Ron McCarty, Chet Ramey, Eric Raymond, Arnold Robbins, and Peter Salus.

We would like to thank Kayla Dugger for driving us through the copyediting and proofreading process with unwavering good cheer, and Ginny Bess for her hawk-eyed copyedit. A special thanks goes to the army of people behind the scenes of the copyediting, proofreading, layout, marketing, and printing who we did not get to meet personally for making this book possible.