Part of the Computing fundamentals glossary:

In information technology, vanilla (pronounced vah-NIHL-uh ) is an adjective meaning plain or basic. The unfeatured version of a product is sometimes referred to as the vanilla version. The term is based on the fact that vanilla is the most popular or at least the most commonly served flavor of ice cream. Or, as Eric Raymond, editor of The New Hacker's Dictionary , puts it, the default ice cream.

Next Steps

IBM's BookMaster product, a text publishing system used in mainframe environments, provides a default way, called vanilla , to specify which parts of the book to publish, and another fancier way to specify it, called mocha .

Some Web sites with frames call the simpler version of their site the vanilla version.

This was last updated in September 2005
Contributor(s): Tom Cook
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • glocalization

    - Glocalization is the concept that in a global market, a product or service is more likely to succeed when it is customized for the locality or culture in which it is sold.  (SearchCIO.com)

  • computer forensics (cyber forensics)

    - Computer forensics is the application of investigation and analysis techniques to gather and preserve evidence from a particular computing device in a way that is suitable for presentation in a cou... (SearchSecurity.com)

  • GPU (graphics processing unit)

    - A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a computer chip that performs rapid mathematical calculations, primarily for the purpose of rendering images. (SearchVirtualDesktop.com)

Glossaries

  • Computing fundamentals

    - Terms related to computer fundamentals, including computer hardware definitions and words and phrases about software, operating systems, peripherals and troubleshooting.

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

Ask a Question. Find an Answer.Powered by ITKnowledgeExchange.com

Ask An IT Question

Get answers from your peers on your most technical challenges

Ask Question

Tech TalkComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top