AFAIK: As Far As I Know
AKA: Also Known As
ALS:Atlanta Linux Showcase. "Conference and Exhibition"
ASAP: As Soon As Possible
atime: Unix jargon for "the time a file was last accessed". (cf. ctime, mtime)
BGP: A network routing protocol.
BDC: Backup Domain Controler. See PDC.
boot: To 'boot' a computer is to start the operating system. A boot can be a "hard boot" or a "soft boot". A restart may be to the lowest level of the CPU's control program (BIOS), or slightly higher, depending on whether it is a hard or soft boot and the design of the computer system. In any case, the "operating system" is restarted from the beginning.
box: This is "computer" for the folks that have trouble with multisyllabic words.
big-endian: See "byte ordering"
byte ordering: This refers to the order in which bytes that are ordered in memory as n,n+1,... are ordered when a computer considers multiple bytes as one integer. Big-endian computers use bytes with lower addresses for the bits with higher powers of two. PowerPC, m68k, HP-PA-RISC, IBM-370, PDP-10, most other computers use this. Little-endian computers use the opposite convention. i86, PDP-11, VAX, uses this.
cluster: I'd like to know for sure. It obviously is a networked group of computers, probably with special OS SW that allows any of the computers to handle work submitted to any of the others. I think some of them allow computers to die or be shut down while others keep running. Users never know what computer(s) they are using.
CMU: Carnegie Mellon University, home of SEI and much other SW stuff.
CGM: A non-proprietary vector graphics file format.
COLA: comp.os.linux.announce (newsgroup)
ctime: Unix jargon for "the time a file's status last changed". (cf. atime, mtime)
daemon: A daemon is a program which runs for an extended period (usually "forever") to handle requests for service as needed.
dev:Developement
DL:Download
EGP: A network routing protocol.
ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival
FAQ: Frequently Asked Question
Follow up: Post a newsgroup article in response to another newsgroup article. Some people insist on the distinction between "reply" and "follow up".
Followup: A newsgroup article posted in response to another newsgroup article. Some people insist on the distinction between "a reply" and "a followup".
FHS: File system Hierarchy Standard
FSSTND: Filesystem Standard
FSF: Free Software Foundation. The FSF owns most of the offical GNU SW and licences its use with the 3000 word GPL and 4000 word LGPL licences to restrict your freedom to use their free software. (Not that that's a bad thing, per se; it's just that I dislike their use of the word "free" and the fact that people can't use even well-marked and segragated pieces their software in public domain software or software licenced less restrictively.)
FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt See longer definition.
FWIW: For What It's Worth
FYI: For Your Information
This is also the name of a document type by the folks that bring you RFCs (see).
GFS: Global File System; an open source shared disk file system for networked storage.
GML: Graph(ic?, ing?, ical?) Markup Language.
GNU: GNU is Not Unix. A project to replace Unix with GPL'd software.
GRE: The Internet Generic Routing and Encapsulation Protocol as defined by RFC 1701 and RFC 1702.
GSDK:Game Software Development Kit
GUI: Graphical User Interface.
hard boot: A boot initiated by hardware. This could be a computer power-up, a press of its reset button, or even a hardware glitch.
HELLO: A network routing protocol.
host: A physical or virtual device with a "host" internet address, like 123.2.3.4. That is, not a network address like 123.2.0.0 . Typically, the device is a network interface device like an Ethernet card or a PPP controlled serial interface. Often, a computer is connected via only one such device, and it is thus natural to speak of "host" and "computer" synonymously and it is often done.
In a FQDN, the part of the name before the first dot is the host name.
HTTP: Hyper-Text Transfer Protocal.
HW: Hardware
IANA: Internet Assigned Names (Numbers?) Authority; part of Internet governance
ICQ: ICQ is a program which allows Internet users to exchange messages in near-real-time with other users in a fairly unsecure manner. What the initials stand for is not obvious from the home page and Gary didn't find it.IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group.
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force
IIOP: Internet Inter-ORB Protocol. Most CORBA sites should have info on it.
IIRC: If I Recall/Remember Correctly
Image: This refers to a copy of something, but the term is usually applied only to a copy which is in a different medium than the original and in a format which is different than the original, yet rather similar in that convertion between the two forms is readily done. Two of the most common examples of images are: 1) A memory image. This can be a file on a disk which contains a copy of a portion of system memory. The file could be a simple copy or could be compressed in some complex manner. 2) A floppy disk image. This can be a file on a disk which conntains a copy of an entire floppy disk. It typically contains all information on the floppy (data, directory info, system files) except the "formatting" info (sector checksums, etc).
IMHO: In My Humble Opinion
IMNSHO: In My Not-So-Humble Opinion
Intranet: A LAN using Internet protocols. An internet with a small "i".
IOW: In Other Words
IP: Intellectual Property
IPP: Internet Printing Protocol. A new HTTP-like protocol for sending files to a network printer.
KHG: Kernal Hacker's Guide; a LDP document.
LAN: Local Area Network
LDAP: Lightwight Directory Access Protocol. Allows network nodes to get info on other nodes.
LDP: Linux Documentation Project
little-endian: See "byte ordering"
LG:Linux Gazette
LJ:Linux Journal
LZO: Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer (compression algorithm)
M$:Microsoft
machine: A trendy word meaning "computer" (or "microphone" according to Senator Strom Thurmond).
MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Exchange; A protocol that allows non-text data to be embedded in an e-mail message. See RFCs 822, 1521, 1522, 1523.
mtime: Unix jargon for "the time a file's data was last 'changed'". (cf. atime, ctime)
NG: NewsGroup (on Usenet)
NOVM: NO Virtual Memory. A version of the caching server Squid.
NUMA: Non-Uniform Memory Architecture. For example, a multiprocessor where access to different classes of memory takes significantly different amounts of time. (Memory accesses over a network of some sort, basically.)
OLAP: On-Line Analytical Processing.
open source: This is usually interpreted as "software for which the source code can be obtained for essentially no charge and used for specified purposes". The term has been claimed as a "certification mark" by an organization which has a formal Open Source Definition. Perhaps "open code" and "open stuff" are suitable replacements to reduce the fear of being hassled.
operating system (OS): The master program which controls the operation of other programs and usually acts as an interface between the hardware and these other programs. Often, other programs such as utilities and daemons are considered part of the OS.
OSPF: A network routing protocol.
OSS: Open Source Software. See Open Source Org.
OTOH: On The Other Hand
PD: Public Domain. Supposedly, the "public" owns the copyright. PD SW is the only SW rightly called "free SW". Note that derivations of PD SW need not remain PD.
PDC: Primary Domain Controler. This stores security and user account info for a domain. It manages all aspects of user/domain interaction. A domain has one PDC and can have multiple BDCs. BDCs hold backup copies of the PDC's info and are occasionally synchronized with the PDC. Both PDCs and BDCs can perform some tasks like user authentication. Often, a main site will have a PDC and a BDC (which can share the PDC's load for certain tasks) and remote sites will BDCs to handle certain tasks locally. [paraphrase of Usenet articles]
PDF: Page Description Format: A file format by Adobe.
PPD: Postscript Printer Description specification. Adobe's spec of a standard virtual printer. (?)
PURL is aPPP: Point-to-Point-Protocol
PURL: Persistent Uniform Resource Locator. Home page.
RBAC: Role-Based Access Control. Permissions are assigned to roles rather than to individual users. Users may be assigned roles.
RDF: Resource Description Format. An W3C product. See XUL and RDF
RFC: Request For Comment. See RFC overview.
Reply (verb): Send an e-mail message in response to an e-mail message or newsgroup article. Some people insist on the distinction between "reply" and "followup".
Reply (noun): An e-mail message sent in response to an e-mail message or newsgroup article. Some people insist on the distinction between "a reply" and "a followup".
RIP: A network routing protocol. Fairly old and simple.
RSN: Real Soon Now. A mocking phrase popularized by Byte's Jerry Pournelle. Means "probably not soon".
RTFM: Read The Fine Material or Read The Fine Manual
RTR: Rare Technical Report. See RTR Retrieval.
SEI: Software Engineering Institute at CMU, home of SEI levels of SW dev processes.
Set up: A verb phrase very often confused with "setup".
Setup: A noun very often confused with "set up".
SLP: Service Location Protocol. Something like LDAP and SNMP.
SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol. An Internet protocol. Allows nodes to determine which services another nodes offer.
soft boot: A boot initiated by software. The "opposite" of "hard boot".
SPD: Serial Presence Detect. 2048 bit EEPROM on PC100 memory modules. Allows motherboard to correctly configure itself for use of the memory modules. See memory page.
SPI: Software in the Public Interest. An organization associated with the Debian organization.
splash screen: The first screen (window) a user sees after starting a program. It often has some graphics and some copyright info. The idea is to make a big "splash" with that screen.
STD: Standard
Also the name of a document type (standards) by the folks that bring you RFCs (see).
Steganography: hiding data within the noise of some other data.
SW: Software
tarball: A file created with the "tar" command containing a collection of other files.
TDS: Tabular Data Stream; TDS is the wire level protocol which Sybase and MS SQL-Servers use to talk to clients. DB-Lib, CT-Lib, and jConnect (Sybases JDBC driver) sit on top of TDS. DB-Lib was Sybase's original CLI (call level interface). CT-Lib was added with System 10.0, it has more features but it's rather more difficult to use. jConnect is a level 4 JDBC driver which directly sits over TDS. Sybase's ODBC driver (actually from Intersolv(?) interfaces with CT-Lib and does not sit directly on top of TDS.
Theme: A set of window manager decorations. See GUI page.
THX: Thanks (thank you)
TIA: Thanks In Advance
TUI: Textual User Interface.
UI: User Interface.
URI: Uniform Resource Idendifier. More info.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator. More info.
URN: Uniform Resource Name. A new-and-improved URL. More info.
UPDF: Universal Printer Driver Format. Similar to Adobe's PPD, but extended for any printer language.
VAR: Value-Added Reseller.
W3C: WWW Consortium.
WAN: Wide Area Network
WIP: Work In Progress
WRT: With Respect/Regard To
WWW: World Wide Web. The part of the Internet using HTTP.
XUL: eXtensible User interface Language. See XUL and RDF
XFLD: X Logical Font Description
XSL: Extensible Stylesheet Language. A W3C standard (draft as of Mar'99) allows Web developers to apply formatting rules to XML documents. XSL allows for information about the formatted document's structure, differentiating between body, title, chapter, table of contents, and the like.
XML: Extensible Markup Language.