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<chapter id="intro">
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<title>Introduction</title>
<para>This book describes the design and principles of the HelenOS operating
system from the perspective of its microkernel as well as from the
perspective of its userspace drivers and server tasks. Its primary goal is
to present ideas behind each subsystem and highlight things that are
specific to HelenOS. Although this text contains references to source code
(e.g. function names), these are provided only to improve reader's
orientation when reading the code. This book does not attempt to be a
substitute for a reference manual and the reader is strongly encouraged to
look for interface details there.</para>
</chapter>