Insanely knowledgeable in his field of study and really, really passionate about operating systems. If you just want to pass the class, don't take 170 with him, but if you're invested in learning how Linux *actually* works, his class is well worth the effort. Do not take this class if you don't have a good background in C, and go to office hours!

Atrocious grading scheme. Final is worth 40%, last lab is worth over 30%. I did learn a lot, and my labs were "perfect" all quarter until the last one. I thought I was set, and an extremely minor bug caused me to get a bad score.. there goes 25% of my grade! Lectures were good, but comparable to other good UCSB CS professors. I don't get the hype.

One of the hardest classes that I've taken at UCSB but I learned a lot and found the experience to be worth it. Start the labs early and work with a good partner. This is not a class for procrastinators or people looking for an easy A. Go to Rich's office hours, he has plenty of great wisdom to share.

Be ready to code Linux in 10 weeks. Partner projects cover most of the grading and one final to consider. Good lectures and his notes explain concepts really well.