How do you differentiate between "box," "machine," "computer" and whatever else?

Posted by Corey on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Corey
Published on 2010-12-28T20:21:54Z Indexed on 2010/12/28 21:00 UTC
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terminology

There seems to be a few terms for referring to a computer, especially in the tech world. Different terms seem to be used based on technical expertise.

When talking with people with some technical knowledge, I'll refer to it as a machine. When talking to non-technical people (family, friends) I'll call it a computer. On the rare occasion I'm talking about servers, I might call it a box, but even then I'll probably still call it a machine.

Is that just me, or do there exist rules already for what to call a computer?

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