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Maddog's New Hampshire "Unix" Plate Turns 20

Posted by timothy on from the like-a-1-letter-domain dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Local newspaper talks to Linux International's Jon 'maddog' Hall, who lives in New Hampshire, and who since 1989 has had a 'Live Free or Die' UNIX license plate — a real one, not a conference hand-out — on his Jeep. From the story: 'The day he installed the UNIX plates, he went early to work at DEC's office on Spit Brook Road in Nashua, to be sure to get the parking space right next to the door used by all the Unix engineers. He watched them come in and, one after another, do a double take at seeing the real-world version of the famous fake plate. "People would race in and yell, 'Who is it? Whose plate is it?!?'" Hall said. It was his then and it is his now. After 20 years, one suspects you will have to pry it from his cold, dead fingers.'"

5 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Very cool... by i.of.the.storm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a friend whose last name starts with P. His parents gave him and his brother the initials TCP and IP.

    --
    All your base are belong to Wii.
  2. Re:Let's see how long he can keep it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's little known in the nerd community that "unix" has also negative conotations for example in certain ghettos in california an unix is a one-legged chinese hooker.

    Call me sceptical, but this is remiscent of the bullshit entries near the bottom of the list on Urban Dictionary (3 thumbs up from the submitter and friends, 10 thumbs down from everyone else who stumbled across that piece of nonsense).

  3. I've seen that plate by evilned1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I live near Spitbrook and I've seen that plate around the area for years. I've never known the story behind it though.

  4. UNIX ain't nothin' by Aphoxema · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My late father had "RS 232" as his license plate on his PT Cruiser. It's not as cool and hard-to-get as UNIX, I suppose, but considering recent popularity of UNIX derivatives in general it's certainly more obscure in the geek crowd.

    --
    "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
  5. Re:Exactly how many are there...? by virtualXTC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well considering NH has the highest number of vanity plates per capita, I'd say, quite a few. I personally like the Linux and BSD license plates better, though those from NH would probably agree IH8RT3 is also in the top tier.