Blue Screen of Death

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The Jargon File Parts of this article are based on the Jargon File, v. 4.4.7, a public domain document of hacker jargon.

Blue Screen of Death

Usage: n. Derivation: Common

Blue Screen of Death: n.

[common] This term is closely related to the older Black Screen of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up). Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows, misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death, sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this happens. (Commonly abbreviated BSOD.) The following entry from the Salon Haiku Contest, seems to have predated popular use of the term:

Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death No one hears your screams.

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