
How To Become A Hacker - iamelgringo
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
======
henning
I've probably read this a dozen times. I used to read it for motivation.

"Trying to learn to hack on a Microsoft Windows machine or under any other
closed-source system is like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body
cast."

I never agreed with this. The only time it's possibly a problem is if you want
to learn about operating systems, and in that case the source to a current
release of the Linux kernel is probably too complex. You'd be better off
running Minix under a virtual machine, which you can do in Windows (or Mac OS
X, or other proprietary OS) just fine.

A much more compelling argument is it's much easier to experiment with and
install open source software on systems that have package management systems
like apt-get. Certain excellent pieces of software run best on Unix-like OSes:
Emacs, the MATLAB clone Octave, numerical libraries like ATLAS and GSL,
Intel's LAPACK implementation, etc.

Whether you have the source to your kernel in particular is irrelevant in all
of this and has everything to do with the open source community and traditions
surrounding free software instead.

I view things this way because I've always cared more about making enduser
applications/solutions instead of libraries and systems packages.

~~~
cstejerean
try installing something like LFS (Linux from scratch) and see how much you
learn about Linux. Maybe I'm just old school but even on Windows I was always
studying the OS internals, the specs of the various protocols and the details
of the filesystem. The difference is in Linux I have access to the sourcecode
so in addition to reading a book on the specs I can study the implementation
ad well.

Does this really make me a better programmer? I hope so. But it might be just
an extreme form of procrastination.

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tehmoth
the problem with esr's 'definition of a hacker' is it is basically how he
views himself at some point in his life.

~~~
rams
Havoc Pennington makes a similar point in his essay "Working on Free Software"
(<http://ometer.com/hacking.html>):

"Eric Raymond's thoughts on this topic are here; his HOWTO describes how to
join "hacker culture." The culture isn't really necessary to participate in
free software projects though, IMO. As long as you follow the community way-
of-working you don't have to get into the social aspects (unless you'd like
to)."

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thorax
Attitude #2 is precisely what our startup <http://bug.gd> is intended for:

 _2\. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.

[...]

To behave like a hacker, you have to believe that the thinking time of other
hackers is precious — so much so that it's almost a moral duty for you to
share information, solve problems and then give the solutions away just so
other hackers can solve new problems instead of having to perpetually re-
address old ones._

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illicium
_"During the first ten years of this HOWTO's life, I reported that from a new
user's point of view, all Linux distributions are almost equivalent. But in
2006-2007, an actual best choice emerged: Ubuntu."_

Ubuntu sort of spoils users by making a fancy GUI available for most every
aspect of system management and administration. When I was starting out with
Linux, I must've went through about a half dozen of broken Slackware installs
(and a lot of banging my head on the keyboard) before I really got the hang of
how to work with a Unix system, but it was a great learning experience
nonetheless.

This isn't to say that Ubuntu isn't a great distro--it is, but I'm afraid that
its ease of use impedes the whole "learning to be a hacker" process, while
other distros practically force you to learn a lot to use them, and that's a
Good Thing.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_I'm afraid that its ease of use impedes the whole "learning to be a hacker"
process_

I have extensive graduate training in the art of building transistors from raw
silicon. I guess I'm some sort of god in your world. :)

In my world, however, building transistors from raw silicon is an esoteric
skill that doesn't have much use. Most of us prefer to spend a few bucks to
buy our transistors by the billion, because transistors are a solved problem.

And I'm happy to use Ubuntu and the Mac to actually get things done, rather
than pretend that repeatedly fixing bugs in the Slackware installer represents
a valuable form of education.

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manny
"Don't call yourself a ‘cyberpunk’, and don't waste your time on anybody who
does."

Whoa! Where did that come from? Perhaps ESR had a bad experience watching
Blade Runner or something, but this is entirely uncalled for. Quite frankly,
cyberpunk remains fresh and still alive and happily uninfected by the
mainstream -- just how we like it.

~~~
tlrobinson
I think what he's getting at is that while cyperpunk and hacking culture are
not mutually exclusive, they do not entail each other.

From what I've seen a cyberpunk "hacker" is usually the "other" kind of hacker
(again, not mutually exclusive)

I'm sure ESR wouldn't tell you to not waste your time on an amazing hacker (in
the original sense of the word) who also happened to be into "cyperpunk", but
most cyberpunks are not amazing hackers.

------
systems
of course no one should want to be a hacker ... in the same sense that no one
want to be a book reader, you just can't suddenly force it on you to like
reading book! either you do or you don't like to read, think about what you
read and than discuss what you read ... if this ever gets a better name than a
'book reader' ... you can't choose to be one

i am of course a book reader

anyway, if you ever decide to be hacker, please read the article in the link
above, actually i would recommend you read all of esr writing, particulary the
cathedral and the bazaar ... learn python too, and hack on the twistedmatrix
networking framework... this will surely make u a great hacker ... :)))

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iamelgringo
This should be be made required reading for this site.

~~~
kirubakaran
No offense, but I guess most of us here would have read this already, don't
you think?

~~~
kingnothing
I hadn't seen it until just now.

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tlrobinson
I can't believe at one point he recommended Java...

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0xdefec8
How to Become A Stereotype

