[Desire Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] PTKDev:
CIFS

Common Internet File System, Mounts SMB shares as Local folders

http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/CIFS/CIFS-TR-1p00_FINAL.pdf

UTF8

Is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8

EXT3

Linux file system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3

EXT4

Linux file system (it has good performance)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4

TUN

TUN is virtual network kernel driver and is virtual interface for OpenVPN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TUN/TAP

CFQ

Completely Fair Queuing, is an I/O scheduler for the Linux kernel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFQ

OTA

Over-the-air programming,methods of distributing new software updates to cellphones or provisioning handsets with the necessary settings with which to access services such as WAP or MMS. Some phones with this capability are labeled as being "OTA capable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-air_programming

OJ

Optical Joistick, is a «trackpad» of htc desire

http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content...Sense-and-a-new-look-buttons-and-trackpad.jpg

ROM

Is a firmware of phone, include kernel + os + apps and more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware

RADIO

Is a software part of firmware (rom), this manage the phone network (3G/2G) for calls and internet connections. Each radio has features that make the consumer less appropriate according to the telephone operator (orange / vodafone / wind / plus), which uses a different frequency, if a particular radio set is better for some frequencies, for example -75 dBm and 19asu (drawer -> setting -> battery -> network) with certain radio I have a better battery performance compared to other operating frequencies higher.If you have «branded phones», you have at default better radio that «not branded phones» becouse ruu of «branded phone» have different radio of «stock ruu» for wwe.

All radio here ---> http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=687464

GOLDCARD

A Gold card is a special SD card which when inserted into your device allows you to flash RUU files with a different CID to your own device (for flashing not verified data files)

http://segmentnext.com/2010/04/28/how-to-create-gold-card-to-flash-android-ruu-files/

Kernel (by sakara)

The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel

GSM/CDMA (by System of a pWne!^)

GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communication. CDMA is Code Division Multi Access. Your phone can only be of one type to access your mobile network. If your are having a SIM-Card, you have a GSM Phone (Even when it supports WCDMA, Wide Code Division Multi Access, also named 3G). A CDMA Phone uses no SIM card but an internal code of the phone to access the mobile network.

//Note: This should be extended a bit

RUU (by System of a pWne!^)

Rom upgrade utility, used for flashing ROMs to a device.

HBOOT (by System of a pWne!^))

The bootloader of your android device

ADB (by System of a pWne!^)

Android Debug utility, shipped with the SDK. It can be used to push files to your device or connect to the phone's shell with a computer it is connected to.

RIL (by System of a pWne!^)

Radio interface layer. This is a layer between the Radio and the ROM. It communicates with the hardware over the Radio and supplies an interface for the ROM so it can use the hardware. This is similar to a driver.

Whenever you flash a new Radio, you should also consider flashing the corresponding RIL for it. This makes sure, the Radio is getting adressed correctly.

ROOT (by System of a pWne!^)

In linux systems, root is the superuser which is allowed to do anything in the OS. Rooting your phone means, you gain full access to the OS.

UNREVOKED (by System of a pWne!^)

UnRevoked is a utility, which allows rooting your phone.

RECOVERY MODE (by System of a pWne!^)

While being in recover mode, you can modify specific parts of your device. This mode is only accessible from the HBOOT bootloader, so Android is not booted up yet. There do exist several recovery images you can flash. By default, the HTC Recovery is installed which is basically useless but for HTC. But you can flash e.g. ClockworkMod or AmonRa Recovery.

S-OFF/S-ON (by System of a pWne!^)

Security-ON/OFF. Making your device S-OFF means, you are able to write to the /system partition of your device while Android is booted up. With S-ON devices, you can only write and modify files on the /system partition in recovery mode.

ALPHAREV (by System of a pWne!^)

AlphaRev is a utility, which allows setting your GSM Desire to S-OFF.

De-Branding (by !PANDA)

Removing network specific ROM, any network apps, and logo animation at start up. Just to clorify, a Branded phone has all the things that I have mentioned above.

Flashing a ROM (by !PANDA)

This is where you install a new ROM (Firmware) whether it is a custom ROM or a hTc stock ROM.

Custom ROM (by !PANDA)

A Custom ROM is a ROM that has been modified by any developer. This can make your device faster, have longer battery life and better looks (edited themes etc).

FASTBOOT (by !PANDA)

A protocol used to update the flash file system in Android devices from a host over USB. It allows flashing of unsigned partition images.

Under/Over-Clocking (by !PANDA)

This is where you Under?over-Clock your processor, Over-Clocking uses more of your battery but delivers better performance. Under-Clocking is useful for battery saving. For that you need root and an app from the Android Market, SetCPU.