Published May 31, 2000
This could be the quick-lunch crowd or an infamously poor golf team. Actually the terms are of computer jargon common in our everyday communications. But are their meanings clear?
In context with the popularized news and motion picture media’s, the hacker is a criminal, a despised vengeful desperado who’s antics are meddlesome and hurtful. As usual, their sensationalistic journalism is despairingly inaccurate and misleading.
The negativity of the definition is opposite the reality. The culprit is a cracker, not a hacker! The deprecated cracker is a malicious meddler probing for sensitive computer information and access.
A hacker is many things, mostly all favorable attributes. He or she delights in solving problems, overcoming limits, has an insatiable curiosity and has developed a technical adeptness. Individualistic hackers are an unapplauded resource for technological improvements and refinements in our day. They should all be awarded medals, not pejorative shame and disrespect.
The hacker computer techie chooses his tools wisely. He or she relegates unstable operating systems, as from Microsoft, to a lesser used partition of their hard drives. In its place, they embrace one of the powerful and no-cost UNIXs, like Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD. Mainstream desktop computer users may not have heard of these open-source alternatives that are in widespread use. Don’t be surprised that your neighbor’s high school student also uses UNIX.
The hackers’ tools are not popular because there is no profit in them. They are created and distributed free of charge. Star Office is an example of a high quality Unix-based software suite downloadable from the Internet. In contrast, Microsoft Office cost several hundred dollars initially, more later for upgrades, and won’t work unless its running under their operating system.
Originally a hacker was a person who made furniture with an ax. The badge was first adopted about the 1960s at the MIT AI Lab. A decade later, hackers performed the earliest ARPAnet experiments on time-shared minicomputers. They have invented the processes, solved the problems and made the Internet work for all of us to enjoy.
Hackers can be found at the highest levels of any science or art. Any expert or enthusiast can proudly accept the hacker title as a compliment.
Crackers, on the other hand, are a dubious lot. They gather in very secretive tight-knit groups. A cracker breaks into computer systems’ security, and usually leaves something behind (vandalism) or takes something (theft). While any real hacker is capable of “security breaking,” hackers have matured beyond that.
Hackers generally regard crackers as irresponsible, unethical and surreptitious vandals. Hackers contend that the ability to break security doesn’t qualify persons as hackers any more than the ability to hot-wire a car qualifies them as an automotive engineer.
Hackers are a prideful and openly sharing elite working on many challenging and clearly worthwhile projects. The basic difference is: hackers build things; crackers break them.
The world is full of interesting problems to be solved. It’s fun, motivationally rewarding work for the hacker. One piece of the puzzle is solved at a time, possibly collaborating in groups. Each minor solution surrenders clues to the next piece until it’s done.
Sharing is a moral duty, so that a problem never has to be solved twice. Hackers are typically higher income earners who give away their spare time research to benefit their colleagues’ progresses.
Drudgery and boredom are considered evil. Using a computer to lessen the drudgery, not heighten it, is a hacker’s credo. Wastefulness hurts everyone.
By nature, hackers are limitedly anti-authoritarian. They work best alone, outside the corporate hierarchy of bosses who can stop creativity or say, “do this differently.” Authoritarians thrive on secrecy and censorship, distrusting voluntary cooperation and information-sharing. Hackers respect competence, mental acuteness and concentration.
Programming is the primary proficiency in a hacker’s toolkit of skills. Reading and writing code in languages like Python, C, Pearl and LISP are basic prerequisites for furthering a life-time of learning. An aspiring hacker is first a beta-tester of other’s programs and eventually helper to debugging and modifying them. In this way, technology is advanced rapidly, skills acquired and respect earned.
Volunteers at other levels of capability demonstrate commitment to the necessary but unglamorous work of administrating mailing lists, moderating newsgroups, maintaining software archive sites, and technical standards development on the Internet. There is much to do.
Quality hacker-qualified men and women who can competently create projects and resolve computer tasks for a client or employer are in much demand these days. Our universities are rushing engineers into the job market who’s education does not match the needs of the workplace. Programmers to write transportable code, that is not tied to a single software publisher or system, are urgently sought.
“A sense of community may be hackerdom’s most valuable intangible asset.” —Eric Raymond