i told unix jokes... and some body got them.) maybe thay can make the explaination understandable to a computer neophyte.

well sure...

on second thought.

I once sat "over the wall" from a unix geek and he had the temerity to make fun of me for being a VAX geek, to wit:

There once was a system called VMS
Of cycles by no means abstemious.
It's chock-full of hacks
And runs on a VAX
And makes my poor stomach all squeamious.

to which I perforce responded:

an unfriendly system is hp-ux*
'tis obscurantism deluxe
and speaking of unix
(remindful of runics)
this OS unequivocally sux

...but I digress.

*the HP version of unix, fondly pronounced h-pux, or more formally, hockey pucks