UNIX System Home • The Single UNIX Specification • UNIX 03 • UNIX V7 • Mailing Lists • White Papers

UNIX ® Magic Poster Competition

The Single UNIX Specification Version 4

The Single UNIX Specification Version 3

UNIX Poster Contest

Win a UNIX Coffee Mug

The Open Group is holding a UNIX poster design contest. We are designing a poster that captures the magic of the UNIX system and the UNIX landscape in 2006. We are looking for your assistance with the design.

The brief for the poster design is to feature images based on UNIX system interfaces, utilities, languages, related projects, key people and organizations who have shaped the UNIX system and related open systems. In many ways the poster is a puzzle, in that folks look at the images and have to work out the connection to the UNIX system, for example the original series had images of boot (for booting the system), a black cat, piping on the roof (for UNIX pipes), a large shell. We will be hiding at least 30 such clues in the new poster. There will also be prizes for those who solve the puzzle when the posters are available.

What we are looking is your suggestions for clues to place in the poster. We are looking for images and metaphors that provide subtle clues rather than direct product placements! For example a spiders web, a colony of penguins, etc.

History of the original UNIX Magic Poster Series

The classic UNIX magic poster by Overacre was distributed at past USENIX conferences and featured a white bearded wizard with UNIX related things around him, for example a spool of thread, a black cat, a boot, a fork, pipes, buckets, a number of containers, labelled with things like tar, null, awk, uucp. There is even a 'C' container, and a partially obscured and broken 'B' container.The wizard is pouring mysterious liquids into a giant shell. Subsequent posters in the series included UNIX wars and UNIX views. See an Overacre original.

Submission Rules and Deadline

The submission deadline is March 31st 2006. E-mail your entry (or entries) to unixmagic(at)unix.org . You should propose an image to feature in the poster and explain the clue that this would give. The more subtle the clue the better!

We'll be judging the entries and those that are unique and make it to the poster will get a UNIX mug, UNIX license plate, and a copy of the poster. The first 30 unique entries received that we judge as acceptable will receive UNIX coffee mugs so be sure to include your postal address.

The Open Group reserves the rights to cancel this competition if insufficient suitable entries are received or due to other unforeseen circumstances.

Visit our online store for items related to the UNIX® system.