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Talk:Daemon (computing)

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Acronym legend?

The acronym expansion appears to be an urban legend. This query:

The first daemon (an abbreviation for Disk And Executive MONitor) was a program that automatically made tape backups of the file system. Does this sound about right? Any corrections or additions? Thank you for your time!

to Fernando J. Corbato, head of the CTSS project where the word entered the computer lexicon, prompted the following reply:

Your explanation of the origin of the word daemon is correct in that my group began using the term around that time frame. However the acronym explanation is a new one on me.

The page (it's in the article) which has this also notes that:

Professor Jerome H. Saltzer, who also worked on Project MAC, confirms the Maxwell's demon explanation.

So I'd say this one is pretty definitively "busted"! Noel (talk) 17:19, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

How is it busted? It would only be busted if Corbato had provided the actual etymology; instead it only remains unproven. --148.84.19.92

I found the article, and Corbato also says it's from Maxwell. See [1]. Beinsane 21:43, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Services"

I'm confused by the following (from paragraph six)...

"On Microsoft Windows systems, programs called "services" perform the functions of daemons, ..." "There are "services" as well, but these are completely different in concept."

Was the second "services" referencing something on the Mac? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.24.201.155 (talk • contribs) 14:25, 6 April 2006‎

In Windows programs running in the background (ie. similar to daemons under Unix) are called "services".
In Unix, some daemons will provide network-*services*... like provide mail-services (SMTP, POP) or web-services (HTTP) - where "service" refers to the ability to handle some network-protocol (achived by having a daemon understanding the protocol listning on the port that protocl uses).
So in Unix "service" refers to what the program (daemon) provides, while it in Windows (also) refers to the actual program (of course many Windows "services" thus doesn't provide any services (as understood in Unix) at all, as they do other things than understanding network-protocols).
koppe Tuesday 20 March 2007, 16:40 (CET)
There's also a third NeXT/Mac form of services that are a sort of GUI pipe — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk • contribs) 13:07, 18 December 2007‎)
...which are what's mentioned in passing in the "Implementation in Mac OS" section, with a link to Services menu. That has nothing to do with services in the daemon sense (which, as that section notes, are provided by things called daemons in OS X, OS X being a Unix system). Guy Harris (talk) 14:46, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
And, indeed, the full quote to which the original comment referred was

On the original Mac OS similar systems were known as extensions. Mac OS X, being a unix-like system, has daemons. There are "services" as well, but these are completely different in concept.

so the second "services" was, in fact, referring to the NeXT/OS X "Services menu" services. Guy Harris (talk) 18:29, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

poor processes

A daemon kills the parent and forces the orphan to become adopted. Sounds like an appropriate name. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.167.246.211 (talk • contribs) 23:24, 28 July 2006‎

Merge or Delete?

The lede states: 

..a daemon is a computer program that runs as a background process,

As is noted later in the article, in the jargons of others (Microsoft, Android, etc) a "daemon" is what is referred to as a "background service". The phrase "background process" is even linked to Process (computing). Daemon doesn't seem to me to merit an article as it is merelly the particular jargon used by MIT for these processes. This article should either be merged with Process (computing) or deleted. LookingGlass (talk) 11:48, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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