Where did the name Toaster come from?

[Guest]

I get that the name "Toaster" refers to mail servers. How did that come to be?

[matt]

Not quite.

Toaster is a generic term, referring to a specific device that does one thing (ie, a bread toaster). Back in the day, about the time that Boardwatch shifted it's focus from BBS's to ISPs, the term toaster came into being to describe clusters of servers used for single purposes, such as file toasters, web toasters, mail toasters, etc.

Matt

[davidcl]

Interesting.  I've mostly heard the term in connection with mail servers.  I like it because there's a handy metaphor between the process of delivering mail and making toast.

Mail goes in (SMTP) gets processed (delivery, filtering, forwarding) and comes out (POP3, IMAP, webmail).

Toast goes in, gets toasted, and comes out.

In both cases, the coming out phase can be described as "popping."

In particular, the "toaster" term is used in connection with qmail because Dan Bernstein uses it here: http://cr.yp.to/qmail/toaster.html" target="_blank">http://cr.yp.to/qmail/toaster.html

I've also heard the term toaster used in connection with so-called "appliance" servers, allegedly single-use turnkey systems.  I've always assumed that the companies selling them call them appliances and the admins using them call them toasters.