Toy

/tȯi/

n. A computer system; always used with qualifiers.

1. 'nice toy': One that supports the speaker's hacking style adequately.

2. 'just a toy': A machine that yields insufficient computrons for the speaker's preferred uses. This is not condemnatory, as is bitty box; toys can at least be fun. It is also strongly conditioned by one's expectations; Cray XMP users sometimes consider the Cray-1 a 'toy', and certainly all RISC boxes and mainframes are toys by their standards.

See also Get a real computer!.