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If it is open source, is it still considered hacking?
by system2 1mo ago
If it is open source, is it still considered hacking?
- mlmonkey 1mo agoHacking means much more than just breaking into systems ...
- reaperducer 1mo agoI'm old enough to have lived through at least seven definitions of "hacker." Including the one in the late 1970's when a hacker was someone who took public domain software and then sold it commercially with their own name on it.
- yomismoaqui 1mo agoAsking this on a site called Hacker News is gold.
- system2 1mo agoHeh, true, but when I think about open source, I think of "developing". Hacking indicates a restricted device being unlocked or doing things that it was not meant to do. If this is the definition of hacking, installing Ubuntu on a brand-new machine is hacking.
- zem 1mo agoit's the difference between "hacking" and "hacking on"
- broodbucket 1mo agoNo it doesn't. Hacking meant something akin to "tinkering" long before it meant unauthorised compromise of a system.
- system2 1mo agoYou are saying exactly what I said in my first response.
- noman-land 1mo agoHacking is widely considered to historically mean "using a system in a creative and unusual way to get it to behave in ways that were not anticipated or intended by the creator". A hacker is a tinkerer. Some tinkerers do crime. Most don't.