Monday, May 18, 2009 -

The most famous Unix user in New Hampshire...and his license plate

Josh
Josh Nason
Client Services

Happened to stumble across this Nashua Telegraph story about Jon Hall, a famous/infamous Unix lover here in the Granite State, and the story of his fight to keep Unix free and the signifiance of putting 'UNIX' on a New Hampshire license plate. Here is one such excerpt:

"Negotiations between DEC and AT&T were proceeding so slowly that the exasperated Stettner, tired of saying "not yet," had the brilliant idea of making fake versions of his license plate.

Queried onstage at a software conference about when Unix licenses would be available, he cried "Right now!" – which, according to Hall, practically produced a heart attack in DEC lawyers in the audience, who knew that corporate negotiations were still going on.

Stettner whipped out the fake plates, there was pandemonium among the crowd of programmers (who love a good pun as much as they love a free trinket), and a cult was born."

We don't do a ton here with Unix/Linux, but anytime you can give a shoutout to a fellow web geek fighting the good fight in New Hampshire, you have to do it. 

Posted by Josh on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 10:46 AM in Offbeat
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