Hacker and the Open Source Revolution

Hacker and the Open Source Revolution

This is corrects the confusion created by mainstream media between ‘hacker’ and ‘cracker’. It also considers the history, nature, attributes ethics and attire of hacker, plus more. Interested in being one yourself, or checking why other people treat you as if you don’t fit into ‘normal’ society?

The new generation of hackers are turning open source into powerful force in today’s computing world. They are the heirs to an earlier hacking culture that thrived in the 1960s and 1970s when computer were still new – part of a community that believed software should be shared and that all would benefit as a result. These expert programmers and networking wizards trace their lineage back to the first time sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this community coined the term ‘hacker’. Hackers build the internet and made the UNIX operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet and make the World Wide Web work.

Hackers sparked the open source revaluation

In 1991, Linus Torvalds sent a posting to an Internet news group, asking for advice on how to make a better operating system. His project was a hobby, he said, and world never be ‘big and professional’. In 1994, the first version of Linux was distributed.

In the spring of 1997, a group of leaders in the free software community assembled in California. The group included Eric Raymond, Tim O’Reilly, and VA Research president Larry Augustin, among others. At Eric Raymond’s insistence, the group agreed that what they lacked to a great extent was a marketing campaign devised to win mindshare, and not just market share. Out of this discussion came a new term to describe the software they were promoting: OPEN SOURCE.

In 1998, Microsoft’s anxiety lacked out through what is now known as the Halloween Documents. These documents comprised a series of confidential Microsoft memos on potential strategies relating to free software, open source software, and to Linux in particular. Among the leaked documents ware a series of response to the original memos. The leaked documents and responses were published by Eric Raymond during Halloween 1998.

So, who are these hackers?

A hacker is someone who enjoys exploring the details of computers and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn the minimum necessary. Originally, ‘hacker’ was a term of respect, used among computer programmers, designers, and engineers. The hacker was one who creates the original and ingenious programs. To programmers, ‘hackers’ connote mastery in the most literal sense: those who can make the computer do what they want it to – whether the computer wants to or not. Unfortunately, this term has been abused by the media to give it a negative connotation – of someone who break into systems, destroys data, steals copyrighted software and performs other destructive or illegal acts with computer and network. The term that accurately defines that’s kind of person is ‘cracker’.

Hackers carry stacks of ideas teetering in their heads at any given time. Their brains cannot stop collecting, consuming, or taking things apart, only to reassemble them again. But what seems to drive them is an intense ability, even a need, for analysis and organization. When hackers encounter a technology for the first time, they do not just absorb the general shape, but go straight for the details. They feed on the logic of technology. When they do communicate, they can speak and write with great precision about what they’ve learned.

The hacker attitude

Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. The hacker mindset is not confined to the realm of software (or hardware). The hacker nature is independent of the particular medium the hacker works in. hackerism ideas have traveled beyond the computer industry. The ideals of the hacker culture could apply to almost any activity one pursues with passion. Burrell Smith, a key member of the team that created the Apple Macintosh computer, says, “Hacker can do almost anything and be a hacker. You can be hacker carpenter. It’s not necessarily high-tech. I think it has to do with craftsmanship and caring about what you’re doing”

Hacker Ethic

Wikipedia accurately explains the ‘Hacker ethic’ as a generic phrase that describes the moral values and philosophy that are standard in the hacker community. The early hacker culture and resulting philosophy originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1950s and 1960s. The term ‘Hacker ethic’ is attributed to journalist Steven Levy, as describe in his book titled ‘Hackers: Heroes of the computer Revolution’, written in 1984. The guideline of the hacker ethic make it easy to see how computer have evolved into the personal devices we know and rely upon today.

The hacker ethic was a “… new way of life, with a philosophy, an ethic and a dream.” However, the elements of the hacker ethic ware not openly debated and discussed; rather they were accepted and silently agreed upon.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has evolved from the hacker ethics that described. The hackers who stay true to hacker ethics – especially the Hands-On Imperative – are usually support the free and open source software movement.

The general tenets of the hacker ethic are:

·         Access to computers – and anything that might teach you something about the way the world work – should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!

·         All information should be free.

·         Mistrust authority – promote decentralization.

·         Hackers wish to be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.

·         You can create art and beauty o computer

·         Computers can change your life for better,

The Hacker attire

Hacker dress for comfort, function, and minimal maintenance rather than for appearances (some, perhaps unfortunately, takes this to extremes and neglect personal hygiene). They have a very low tolerance for suits and other ‘business’ attire; in fact, it is not uncommon for hackers to quit a job rather than conform to dress code. When they are somehow pushed into conforming to dress code, they will find ways to subvert it, for example, by wearing absurd novelty ties. Most hackers I know consider a tie as a strangulation device that partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain… which explains the behavior of tie-wearers. A tic could not bestow upon you the reputation of a super-loser, a suit-wearing super-user with no clue – someone with root privileges on a UNIX system but no idea what is doing; the equivalent of three-year-old with an AK-47 for a toy. In times of dire stress, he may roll up his sleeves and loosen the tic about half an inch. It seldom helps.

Female hackers almost never ware visible makeup and many use none at all.

How to become a hacker

In his essay by the same name, Eric Steven Raymond lists out, among other things, the basic hacking for wannabe hackers. He recommends the following five languages – Python, Java, C/C++, Perl and Lisp.

Get Linux

The single most important step any newbie can take toward acquiring hacker skills is to get a copy of Linux on one of the BSD-Unixes, install it on a personal machine, and run it. Yes, there are other operating systems in the world besides UNIX/Linux. But they are distributed in binary – you can’t modify it. Trying to learn to hack on a windows machine is like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body cast. Besides, UNIX is the operating system of the Internet. While you can learn to use the Internet without knowing UNIX, you can’t be an internet hacker without understanding UNIX. For this reason, the hacker culture today is pretty strongly UNIX-centered.

So, bring up a Linux. Learn it. Run it. Tinker with it. Talk to internet with it. Read the code and modify it. You will get better programming tools (including C, LISP, Python and Perl) than any Microsoft operating system can dream of. You’ll have fun and you’ll soak up more knowledge than you realize, until you look back on it as an ace hacker.

So are you a Hacker?

You must earn the title of ‘Hacker’, rather than just claim it.

References

How to Become a Hacker, an essay by Eric Steven Raymond

Hackers: Heroes of computer Revolution, by Steven Levy

The Daemon, the GNU, and the Penguin, by Peter H.Salus

OpenSources, by Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman and Mark Stone

The New Hacker’s Dictionary, by Eric S Raymond, MIT Press

Biopunk: DIY Scientists Hack the Software Life, by Marcus Wohlsen

LINUX The complete magazine on Open Source FEBRUARY 2012

Dharmendra Bakrecha

http://dkbakrecha.webs.com/

 [Here you find PDF version]