LINFO

The Linux Acronym List



ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ    

A
AMD   Advanced Micro Devices
API   application programming interface
ARP   address resolution protocol
ARPANET   Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
AS   autonomous system
ASCII   American Standard Code for Information Interchange
AT&T   American Telephone and Telegraph Company
ATA   advanced technology attachment
ATM   asynchronous transfer mode

B
B   byte
BELUG   Bellevue Linux Users Group
BGP   border gateway protocol
BIOS   basic input output system
BKL   big kernel lock
BNC   Bayonet Neill-Concelman
BSA   Business Software Alliance
BSD   Berkeley Software Distribution (originally Berkeley Source Distribution)

C
CCITT   Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique
cd   change directory
CD   compact disc
CDROM   compact disc read-only memory
CJKV   Chinese Japanese Korean Vietnamese
CLDR   common locale data repository
CLI   command line interface
CPU   central processing unit
CRC   cyclic redundancy check
CRT   cathode ray tube
CSMA/CD   carrier sense multiple access/collision detection
CSS   cascading style sheets
CUPS   common UNIX printing system
CVS   concurrent versions system

D
daemon   disk and execution monitor*
DEC   Digital Equipment Corporation
DHCP   dynamic host configuration protocol
DLC   data link control
DLL   dynamic link library
DMCA   Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DNS   domain name service
DOS   disk operating system
DRAM   dynamic random access memory
DVD   digital versatile disc (originally digital video disc)

E
EDGE   enhanced data GSM environment
EEPROM   electrically erasable read-only memory
EFF   Electronic Frontier Foundation
EGP   exterior gateway protocol
EULA   end user license agreement

F
FAQ   frequently asked questions
FDD   floppy disk drive
FDDI   fiber distributed data interface
FOSS   free open source software
FQDN   fully qualified domain name
FS   filesystem
FSF   Free Software Foundation
FTP   file transfer protocol

G
Gb   gigabit
GB   gigabyte
GbE   gigabit Ethernet
GCC   GNU Compiler Collection (originally GNU C Compiler)
GFDL   GNU Free Documentation License
GID   group identification
GIF   graphics interchange format
GIGO   garbage in garbage out
GIMP   GNU Image Manipulation Program
GNOME   GNU Network Object Model Environment
GOCC   Government Open Code Collaborative
GNU   GNU's Not UNIX
GPG   GNU Privacy Guard
GPRS   general packet radio service
GRUB   grand unified bootloader
GUI   graphical user interface

H
HDD   hard disk drive
HDLC   high level data link control
HFS   hierarchical file system
HP   Hewlett-Packard
HTML   hypertext markup language
HTTP   hypertext transfer protocol

I
IANA   Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
IBM   International Business Machines
IC   integrated circuit
ICANN   Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
ICMP   Internet control message protocol
IDE   integrated drive electronics
IEEE   Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
IETF   Internet Engineering Task Force
IGP   interior gateway protocol
IGRP   interior gateway routing protocol
IMAP   Internet message access protocol
I/O   input/output
IP   Internet protocol
IPC   inter-process communication
IPX   internetwork packet exchange
IRC   Internet relay chat
ISO   International Organization for Standardization
ISP   Internet service provider
IT   information technology
IXP   Internet exchange points

J
JPEG   Joint Photographic Experts Group
JVM   Java virtual machine

K
Kb   kilobit
KB   kilobyte
KCP   kernel control path
KDE   K Desktop Environment

L
LAMP   Linux Apache MySQL and PHP
LAN   local area network
LANANA   Linux Assigned Names and Numbers Authority
LAP   link access procedure
LCD   liquid crystal display
LDAP   lightweight directory access protocol
LED   light emitting diode
LFS   Linux From Scratch
LGPL   GNU Lesser General Public License
LIDS   Linux intrusion detection system
LILO   Linux loader
LINFO   The Linux Information Project
LFS   log-structured file system
LSB   Linux Mark Institute
LSB   Linux Standards Base
LSI   large scale integrated circuit
LUG   Linux users group
LVM   logical volume management
LZW   Lempel-Ziv-Welch

M
MAC   media access control
Mb   megabit
MB   megabyte
MBR   master boot record
MD5   message digest 5
MDI   medium dependent interface
MIT   Massachussets Institute of Technology
MMU   memory management unit
MS   Microsoft
MS-DOS   Microsoft disk operating system
MTU   maximum transmission unit

N
NFS   network file system
NIC   network interface card
NILFS   new implementation log-structured file system
NIS   network information system
NNTP   network news transfer protocol
NTP   network time protocol

O
ODF   open document format
OS   operating system
OSDL   Open Source Development Labs
OSI   open systems interconnection
OSPF   open shortest path first

P
PAM   pluggable authentication modules
PCMCIA   Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PDA   personal digital assistant
PDF   portable document format
PGP   pretty good privacy
PHP   PHP hypertext preprocessor (originally personal home page)
PID   process identification number
ping   packet Internet groper (orginally not an acronym)
PKI   public key cryptography
PKI   public key infrastructure
PNG   portable network graphics
PnP   plug-and-play
POP   post office protocol
POSIX   portable operating system interface
POTS   plain old telephone service
PPP   point-to-point protocol
PS   postscript
PSTN   public switched telephone network
pwd   print working directory

R
RAID   redundant arrays of independent disks
RAM   random access memory
RARP   reverse address resolution protocol
RDBMS   relational database management system
RFID   radio frequency identification
RHCE   Red Hat Certified Engineer
RIP   routing information protocol
RJ   registered jack
RMON   remote monitoring
RMS   Richard M. Stallman
ROM   read-only memory
RPC   remote procedure call
RPM   Red Hat package manager
RSS   really simple syndication
RTOS   real time operating system
RTP   real-time transport protocol

S
SAN   storage area network
SANE   scanner access now easy
SCO   Santa Cruz Operation
SCSI   small computer standard interface
SDLC   synchronous data link control
SDRAM   synchronous dynamic random access memory
SGID   set group ID
SGML   standard generalized markup language
SMB   server message block
SNMP   simple network management protocol
SMTP   simple mail transfer protocol
SOAP   simple object access protocol
SPAM   superfluous pieces of additional mail*
SRAM   static random access memory
SRI   Stanford Research Institute
SSH   secure shell
SSL   secure sockets layer
su   substitute user
SUID   set user ID
SVID   System V interface definition

T
TAR   tape archive
TB   terabyte
TCP   transmission control protocol
TCP/IP   transmission control protocol/Internet protocol
Tcl   tool command language
TCO   total cost of ownership
TCO   transmission control protocol
TLB   translation lookaside buffer
TLD   top level domain
TRON   The Real Time Operating System
TSL   transport layer security
TTL   time-to-live
TTL   transistor-transistor logic
TTY   teletype terminal

U
UCB   University of California at Berkeley
UCITA   Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
UCLA   University of California at Los Angeles
UCS   universal character set
UDP   user datagram protocol
UID   user identification
URI   uniform resource identifier
URL   uniform resource locator
USB   universal serial bus
UTF   UCS transformation format
UTMS   universal mobile telecommunications system
UUCP   UNIX-to-UNIX copy

V
VFAT   virtual file allocation table
VGA   video graphics array
VLSI   very large scale integrated circuit
vm   virtual memory
VPN   virtual private network

W
W3C   World Wide Web Consortium
WAN   wide area network
WAP   wireless access point
WAP   wireless application protocol
WEP   wired equivalent privacy
WINE   WINE is not an emulator
WLAN   wireless local area network
WWW   World Wide Web
WXGA   wide extended graphics array

X
X   X Window System
XML   extensible markup language


________
* Not a true acronym because it was created first and the words that it supposedly represents were devised later.






Created June 29, 2005. Updated November 9, 2005.
Copyright © 2005 The Linux Information Project. All Rights Reserved.