toy

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!.