re where did the hacker ethic go vinci filipe vxcrna cern ch wrote in article may hal com bobp hal com bob pendleton writes from article may pony ingres com by mwmeyer ingres com mike wading through the muck and meyer in article may hal com bobp hal com bob pendleton writes this is getting pretty silly first off hacker is an obsolete term doesn t matter what it used to mean today it means thief it only means thief if you want it to mean that to me it means lots of context wickedly omitted by myself anyway if i say joe is a hacker to most english speaking people who know the word they ll probably think he is either a poor golfer or a bad carpenter but there are very very few people who will think he is a good and clever programmer if you chose to call yourself by a term that means thief don t be surprised when people think you are a thief even if you don t agree with that definition of the word the narrower view that a hacker when associated with the computing environment is a dishonest expert is not so widespread i m my opinion at least with the people involved with the field imho the wider meaning is not obsolete at all no matter how much the lay press would like it to be therefore i conclude that if you call yourself a hacker and somebody perceives you as a thief then this person belongs to a very very small group that has some computer knowledge but not enough to know the wider and original meaning of the word unfortunately the general public has a very narrow view of the deep dark recesses of the art of computing what little they do see is from the view given to them by the media from what i have seen from the media hacker is not a proper way by which to refer to a respected person i on the other hand know what hacker means from those who consider themselves such following is the definition from jargon file this is also known as the hackers dictionary the definitions are arranged in order of decreasing frequency of usage hacker originally someone who makes furniture with an axe n a person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities as opposed to most users who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary one who programs enthusiastically even obsessively or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming a person capable of appreciating hack value a person who is good at programming quickly an expert at a particular program or one who frequently does work using it or on it as in a unix hacker definitions through are correlated and people who fit them congregate an expert or enthusiast of any kind one might be an astronomy hacker for example one who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations deprecated a malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around hence password hacker network hacker see cracker the term hacker also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net see network the and internet address it also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ehic see hacker ethic the it is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way hackers consider themselves something of an elite a meritocracy based on ability though one to which new members are gladly welcome there is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker but if you claim to be one and are not you ll quickly be labeled bogus see also wannabee hacker ethic the n the belief that information sharing is a powerful positive good and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing free software and facilitating access to information and to computing resources wherever possible the belief that system cracking for fun and exploration is ethically ok as long as the cracker commits no theft vandalism or breach of confidentiality both of these normative ethical principles are widely but by no means universally accepted among hackers most hackers subscribe to the hacker ethic in sense and many act on it by writing and giving away free software a few go further and assert that all information should be free and any proprietary control of it is bad this is the philosophy behind the gnu project sense is more controversial some people consider the act of cracking itself to be unethical like breaking and entering but this principle at least moderates the behavior of people who see themselves as benign crackers see also samurai on this view it is one of the highest forms of hackerly courtesy to a break into a system and then b explain to the sysop preferably by email from a superuser account exactly how it was done and how the hole can be plugged acting as an unpaid an unsolicited tiger team the most reliable manifestation of either version of the hacker ethic is that almost all hackers are actively willing to share technical tricks software and where possible computing resources with other hackers huge cooperative networks such as usenet fidonet and internet see internet address can function without central control because of this trait they both rely on and reinforce a sense of community that may be hackerdom s most valuable intangible asset finally a true hacker does not name himself herself one for this is a title that is bestowed by the befuddled sysadmins and users at large to me a sign of a truly great hacker is to be introduced to someone who says nahh i just know a thing or two people always exagerate note that the above definition does not preclude a hacker from describing limself meaning himself herself one but simply says that it is better not to do so there are many who do not know the meaning of hacker so in order to defend the true meaning of the word it is sometimes necessary to borrow on the reputation of a known respected hacker around the workplace this means that hacker is defined in terms of some well known and respected person sometimes there may only be one such person no matter what mr dumpty says language doesn t work that way actually it does you just have to get adequate press coverage language works anyway that we want it to work the purpose of language is to communicate to oversimplify as long as communication is taking place then language is working include stddisclaimer h amiga the computer for the creative mind tm commodore weber state macintosh the computer for the rest of us tm apple university i think therefore i amiga val csulx weber edu ogden ut usa
