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I have a problem that the word "hacker" was used in this context. Cracker (as coined by RMS), or criminal is more appropriate. I've just read Sam William's RMS
by malkia 15y ago
I have a problem that the word "hacker" was used in this context. Cracker (as coined by RMS), or criminal is more appropriate.
I've just read Sam William's RMS biography, and the word hack has been used since the 1950s for all things not done in harmful way.
And after all this is hacker news...
- malkia 15y agoDownvoted for what? WTF?
- dillona 15y agoYou are repeating a discussion that has happened literally thousands of times over the last thirty years.
- Zirro 15y agoAs someone who has not lived that long I would like to ask why and when the word "Hacker" got a bad meaning attached to it?
- dillona 15y agoIt is mentioned as the 6th definition of "hacker" in the original jargon file [1], so at least by 1988. 1: http://www.dourish.com/goodies/jargon.html http://www.dourish.com/goodies/jargon.html
- dmoney 15y agoThe movies "Hackers" and "The Net" were released in 1995. "Hackers" used the term to mean "someone who penetrates computer security". The one use of the term in in "The Net" [1] was ambiguous as to whether it meant this sense, or Paul Graham's sense of the word[2]; but 90% of the movie was about security and counter-security. So I'd say that the [counter]security connotation was common usage by that time. [1] http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/n/net-script-transcript-sandra-bullock.html http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/n/net-script-tran... [2] http://paulgraham.com/gba.html http://paulgraham.com/gba.html
- Cushman 15y agoThe "good" meaning -- someone who enjoys figuring things out for themselves, taking things apart, analyzing and manipulating systems -- is implicitly bad from an authoritarian perspective. What more do you need to know?