![]() Hackers see computer programming not merely as a technical pursuit, but also as a tool for making the world a better place.įor example, hackers can write code to automate redundant tasks… Computers can change your life for the better. When Napster was shut down in 2001, it was easy for copycat sites to pop up because - you guessed it - open source versions were already free to share! 2. Back in the 1990s, Tim Berners Lee released his original World Wide Web software under the MIT license. These licenses help explain why no one “owns” the internet (as we’ll discuss in future chapters). “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software…,” says the opening paragraph of the MIT license. The GPL License (written by Richard Stallman), and the MIT License are two examples of software licenses that render The Hacker Ethic into a legal text. In addition, WordPress, Wikipedia, and nearly all programming languages are all free! All thanks to The Hacker Ethic. Linux, the most famous open source operating system). Today 80% of smartphones, and 80% of websites run on free software (aka. Started by Richard Stallman in 1985, the free software movement encourages millions of people to share, copy, and remix code. One of the most meaningful outcomes is the Free and Open Source Software movement. ![]() Today the entire world benefits from the decisions of these early hackers. Why build competing versions of software, when we can instead work together to share knowledge and create the very best version? That’s the hackers way. The original MIT hackers quickly began collaborating on building software. ![]() More than ok, actually, because they quickly found value in sharing code. There were no passwords, so any one person’s code could be viewed by anyone else on the system. Unlike today where most students have individual laptops, passwords, and seemingly unlimited time to spend on their computers, the MIT hackers shared just one computer. After hours, they would sneak into the Lincoln Library on campus where they’d vie for a few hours to play with the $3 million TX-0 computer. The first generation of hackers began with a group of students at MIT in the 1950s. “Free” information means the freedom to copy existing code and to share that information with others. These are the top four principles of The Hacker Ethic. In that case, consider this your first step into their culture. One day you may hire a hacker, work with one, or wish to become one yourself. My hope in sharing The Hacker Ethic here is to give you a deeper understanding of how hackers think. The ethics weren’t crafted by Steven Levy or any one person to dictate how hackers should act, rather they’re a reflection of the hacker culture that has grown organically over many decades. In the book, Levy outlined The Hacker Ethic - a code of beliefs embraced by nearly all computer hackers. This was distilled into text for the first time by Steven Levy in his 1984 book Hackers. To understand the distinction, as well as the causes of many of the most famous tech decisions of the past century, by everyone from Steve Jobs, to Satoshi Nakamoto, you’re going to need to understand the secret code of hackers.Īll hackers (good and evil) share a core belief that information should be free. Steve Wozniak is a hacker, and yet Bill Gates, while he certainly has displayed hacker-ish qualities, clashed quite seriously with the hacker community in the mid-70s when he famously began selling his software. ![]() ![]() Hackers express themselves with computer code and use their skills to solve problems. Black hat hackers are an unfortunate distraction from all the kickass white hat hackers out there - the people who built and are continuing to build the internet that billions of people use every day! Those people certainly exist, but a hacker who hacks maliciously or for personal gain is a specific type of hacker known as a black hat hacker. Most computer programmers are hackers, but not all of them.įor some, the word hacker conjures up images of Soviet tech experts breaking into CIA computers, or criminals wearing Guy Fawkes masks, Mr. The name has an “I know it when I see it” ring to it. Eventually, I decided I wouldn’t just learn to code: I would become a hacker.ĭefining hacker isn’t so straightforward. But most notably, he introduced me to The Hacker Ethic - four principles that differentiate ordinary computer programmers from hackers. ![]()
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