None of his article seems to try to defend his assertions at all so it seems odd to link to it unless this is an appeal to authority. In which case, what makes Eric Raymond an authority on the English language?<p>&quot;-er&quot; is a suffix used to turn verbs in to nouns. A kicker is one who kicks, a stabber is one who stabs, a hacker is one who hacks. While you can certainly create a stereotype of the general &quot;stabber&quot;, it shouldn&#x27;t and doesn&#x27;t really come in to whether or not a specific act was a stab. If most people who stab others are large, hooded men, but a petite, bow tie in hair girl thrusts a knife through someones torso, she stabbed them. Talking about the incident? She was the stabber. She does it regularly enough for it to be part of her general description as a person? She is a stabber.<p>Now, seeing as two very common definitions of the word hack are:<p>A: to cut or sever with repeated irregular or unskillful blows<p>B :  to cut or shape by or as if by crude or ruthless strokes &lt;hacking out new election districts&gt;<p>it seems both odd to take people whose relationship with programming could be describe this way and not call them a hacker, and to call people who program out of a love of freedom and voluntary mutual help hackers. How the hell do freedom and voluntary mutual help relate to the word &quot;hack&quot; at all other than just by correlation?<p>People who made programs in a non-professional environment were and are more likely to hack together their programs. This group of people historically has had some values as mentioned in your article there. But to say those values are now the requirements or the defining characteristics of the term? Ridiculous.<p>Most people who bowl do it for the fun of it. If bowling suddenly becomes a lucrative sport and I take it up simply to chase the money and don&#x27;t intrinsically care for rolling a ball at some pins, am I not <i>a bowler</i>? One who is partaking <i>in bowling</i>? Who goes to the bowling club <i>to bowl</i>?