Related:

• hell [orig. Multics n. techspeak, widely propagated via Unix] 1.
  [techspeak] The command interpreter used to pass commands to an operating system...
• Blue Screen of Death n. [common] This term is closely related to the older Black Screen of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up).
  Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows (3....
• chain 1. vi. [orig. from BASIC's CHAIN statement] To hand off execution to a child or successor without going through the OS command interpreter that invoked it.
  The state of the parent program is lost and there is no returning to it....
• crufty /kruhf'tee/ adj. [very common; origin unknow
  poss. from `crusty' or `cruddy'] 1. Poorly built, possibly over-complex....
• boot v.,n. [techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To load and initialize the operating system on a machine.
  This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are still jargon....
• handle n. 1. [from CB slang] An electronic pseudonym
  a `nom de guerre' intended to conceal the user's true identity....
• bare metal n. 1. [common] New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and delusions as an operating system, an bit bashing needed to create these basic tools for a new machine.
  Real bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the compiler back ends that will give the new machine a real development environment....
• footprint n. 1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware.
  2. [IBM] The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed program (often in plural, `footprints')....
• DEC /dek/ n. 1. v. Verbal (and only rarely written) shorthand for decrement, i.
  e. `decrease by one'. Especially used by assembly programmers, as many assembly languages have a dec mnemonic....