D

Daemons
A program that runs in the background waiting for an event to occur (such as a user requesting a service). Users generally do not see any evidence that a daemon is running on the system.

Database
An electronically stored collection of data, that is organized so that its contents can be easily searched and accessed.

Delimiters
A character that is used to separate one group of data from another. Commas, for example, are commonly used to delimit columns in a text file that is destined to be imported into a database.

Desktops
The workspace that all of your windows - graphical or text - are displayed on.

Directory
Files are stored in directories on a hard disk to keep the file structure organized.

Disk
Magnetic or optical media used for long term data storage. Disks are written to and read by a disk drive which is usually located in the computer chasis, though it can be external as well.

Distributed Processing
A system in which a program is run on several computers simultaneously to accelerate processing time. It is also called distributed computing.

Domain
A logical grouping of users and resources on a network.