dickless workstation

( n.)

   Extremely pejorative hackerism for `diskless workstation', a class of
   botches   including   the   Sun  3/50  and  other  machines  designed
   exclusively  to  network with an expensive central disk server. These
   combine   all   the   disadvantages   of  timesharing  with  all  the
   disadvantages  of  distributed  personal  computers;  typically, they
   cannot  even {boot} themselves without help (in the form of some kind
   of {breath-of-life packet}) from the server.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {breath-of-life packet}]