from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
Death Star
n.
[from the movie Star Wars]
1. The AT&T corporate logo, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the
Death Star in the Star Wars movies. This usage was particularly common
among partisans of {BSD} Unix in the 1980s, who tended to regard the
AT&T versions as inferior and AT&T as a bad guy. Copies still
circulate of a poster printed by Mt. Xinu showing a starscape with a
space fighter labeled 4.2 BSD streaking away from a broken AT&T logo
wreathed in flames.
2. AT&T's internal magazine, Focus, uses death star to describe an
incorrectly done AT&T logo in which the inner circle in the top left
is dark instead of light -- a frequent result of dark-on-light logo
images.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Death Star
["Star Wars" film] 1. The AT&T corporate logo, which appears
on computers sold by AT&T and bears an uncanny resemblance to
the Death Star in the movie. This usage is particularly
common among partisans of {BSD} Unix, who tend to regard the
AT&T versions as inferior and AT&T as a bad guy. Copies still
circulate of a poster printed by Mt. Xinu showing a starscape
with a space fighter labelled {4.2BSD} streaking away from a
broken AT&T logo wreathed in flames.
2. AT&T's internal magazine, "Focus", uses "death star" to
describe an incorrectly done AT&T logo in which the inner
circle in the top left is dark instead of light - a frequent
result of dark-on-light logo images.