4 ms·
If it is open source, is it still considered hacking?
by system2 3mo ago
If it is open source, is it still considered hacking?
- mlmonkey 3mo agoHacking means much more than just breaking into systems ...
- reaperducer 3mo 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 3mo agoAsking this on a site called Hacker News is gold.
- system2 3mo 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 3mo agoit's the difference between "hacking" and "hacking on"
- broodbucket 3mo agoNo it doesn't. Hacking meant something akin to "tinkering" long before it meant unauthorised compromise of a system.
- system2 3mo agoYou are saying exactly what I said in my first response.
- noman-land 3mo 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.