What's the difference between pipe and socket?

Question

Both can be used for communicating between different processes,

what's the difference?

Answer 1

(Off the top of my head)

Pipe: A tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco

Socket: Receptacle where something (a pipe, probe or end of a bone) is inserted

Anyways:

"A major difference between pipes and sockets is that pipes require a common parent process to set up the communications channel. A connection between sockets can be set up by two unrelated processes, possibly residing on different machines."

Answer 2

(Shamelessly cribbed from http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=180842)

Pipes are fast and reliable, because they are implemented in memory on a single host where both communicating processes run. Sockets are slower and less reliable, but are much more flexible since they allow communication between processes on different hosts.