Glossaire
  • ADSL: technical process which allows to use a phone line as a high transfer rate connection line towards Internet, together with phone and possibly TV transmission. There are several Internet Service Providers (ISP) that provide ADSL, together with various services.
  • application: contrarily to an operating system, an application software is not necessary to the computer proper working. It is generally specialized for a precise job.
  • blog: a Web site which allows to write every day a short paper, which can be read by anybody. Readers are often allowed to answer or to comment. The papers appear in reverse order or redaction.
  • browser: application which allows to look at the Web sites and to browse their contents.
  • free software: contrarily to commercial or proprietary software, which is sold by software vendors, and whose internal working is a trade secret, free software can be obtained free of charge, and copying it is explicitly allowed. Its internal working is always known and well described, in particular because the text of all its constituent programs can be looked at and changed by anybody.
  • graphical interface: all the images, menus, windows and icons displayed on the screen, which provide you with communication means to the operating system and the various applications.
  • Internet: network of all networks, i.e. the whole set of communication means between all the computers in the world. By extension, set of all the services provided by these computers, and specifically by all the Web sites.
  • Internet Service Provider (ISP): a business which offers an Internet access of good quality, generally through your phone line. It also offers other services, for example free and unlimited phone communications, access to many TV channels, etc.
  • operating system: basic software needed for the computer to work. There exist almost ubiquitous proprietary operating systems, with well-known defects. The GNU/Linux operating system is free software. It is more and more widely used, because of its very numerous qualities.
  • software: contrarily to the hardware, i.e. the material part of the computer and its peripheral parts (screen, keyboard, mouse), software is the immaterial part, made of all the programs needed for the computer working.
  • update: set of all the changes that must be done to the operating system and the various applications in order to pass to new version or to fix security problems.
  • Wifi: a technical process which allows to make two computers or devices to communicate without any physical connection. One of the devices may be an ADSL box. This is especially useful for laptops.
 
Last change: 05/12/2007