[7][8] He is the author of MINIX, a free Unix-like operating system for teaching purposes, and has written multiple computer science textbooks regarded as standard texts in the field.

As an undergraduate, he had obtained experience at computer programming, which helped him get a summer internship at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia.

[11] He taught courses on Computer Organization and Operating Systems and supervised the work of PhD candidates at the VU University Amsterdam.

Tanenbaum's textbooks on computer science include: His book, Operating Systems: Design and Implementation and MINIX were Linus Torvalds' inspiration for the Linux kernel.

These include: In the early 1990s, the Dutch government began setting up a number of thematically oriented research schools that spanned multiple universities.

These schools were intended to bring professors and PhD students from different Dutch (and later, foreign) universities together to help them cooperate and enhance their research.

[15] In 2004, Tanenbaum created Electoral-vote.com, a web site analyzing opinion polls for the 2004 U.S. presidential election, using them to project the outcome in the Electoral College.

He stated that he created the site as an American who "knows first hand what the world thinks of America and it is not a pretty picture at the moment.

Through most of the campaign period Tanenbaum kept his identity secret, referring to himself as "the Votemaster" and acknowledging only that he personally preferred John Kerry.

Mentioning that he supported the Democrats, he revealed his identity on November 1, 2004, the day before the election, and also stating his reasons and qualifications for running the website.