How To Become A Hacker

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

by dskhatri • 17 years ago

70 28 17 years ago

henning2• 17 years ago

"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."

Total fucking bullshit.

kiba• 17 years ago

You would at least justify it with your anecdote.

nzmsv• 17 years ago

You have to have the source of what you are trying to learn. If it's a web framework - sure, you can download the source and work on a Windows machine. But you need to realize you are learning about a different system, and one you have the source to. If you want to figure out how operating systems work - you need to see how one works.

Learning how to use a system or code in a framework is possible with closed-source. You can even get some work done. But it can't be called hacking, because the aim of a hacker is to understand.

Say what you will about esr, but the body cast thing is more true than not.

gruseom• 17 years ago

When the thread about new types of flagging (e.g. for incivility) came up recently, and people were saying that HN was getting nastier, my first reaction was "what? really?" Guess I was late to the party: I'm noticing it everywhere now. :(

Come on henning. You can make a point better than this - you have for a long time.

dskhatri• 17 years ago

It is a controversial statement but it would make sense if he elaborated further. One of my first memorable experiences starting out at college was walking into a computer cluster and finding that every machine ran a variant of Red Hat's Linux. I was taken aback by the freedom the OS provide (the ability to customize every bit of your experience using the workstation). I was also positively taken aback by the community that had adopted this system. Right next door to the main cluster was a room occupied by a group of hackers. Their attitude was like nothing I had seen before. Their doors were always open to anyone who had questions about Linux. They wrote software to make using Linux easier at school. You get that same sense of community from Linux users on the web.

The statement doesn't just apply to software. Think about the Arduino. The project has gained a massive following and created a whole new legion of hardware hackers because it is easy to obtain (designs are open source and collaborative in nature) and there is a strong community behind it (probably as a result of it being open source).

snprbob862• 17 years ago

I've developed against Microsoft platforms for many years. I now, in fact, work at Microsoft. I do a lot of deep integration work with Visual Studio and I can tell you that it would be completely impossible without source code access. After working for a few months with source access to all of developer division, xbox, etc., that I never, ever, ever want to develop against a closed platform ever again. Most of our big partners who write VS add-ins do have source code access as well. You basically need it.

henning2• 17 years ago

That is a completely separate task from learning to develop software.

You need platform source code access if you're doing low-level integration work, which is precisely what you don't do as a beginner.

Windows isn't the best platform for writing software but it's just fine. Python and Emacs work on it just fine, as do MySQL and other important software. Categorically asserting you can't learn how to structure code without having access to terabytes of C code is total fucking bullshit which is why I stand by the original statement.

KonaB• 17 years ago

I learned how to write code using VB and MS Excel, simply because that's what I had at the time. If I had not started with those, I would have never found out that I like programming, and I would never have written code under open-source systems.

Yeah, it's BS. It's the old "only people who do X can be in club Y" thing. But your comment would have been taken more seriously if you had backed it up with strong evidence.

RyanMcGreal• 17 years ago

I also started programming on Windows with VB. However, I eventually found myself bumping against the arbitrary boundaries and limitations that inhere in a proprietary system. Moving first to FOSS technologies on Windows and eventually to a FOSS operating system has been like taking a deep breath after being held underwater for a long time.

systemtrigger• 17 years ago

"Concealing your identity behind a handle is a juvenile and silly behavior characteristic of crackers, warez d00dz, and other lower life forms. Hackers don't do this; they're proud of what they do and want it associated with their real names. So if you have a handle, drop it. In the hacker culture it will only mark you as a loser."

With that lesson, I drop this handle.

ErrantX• 17 years ago

Nah, the key word there is "hide". Note that eric uses esr a lot...... ;)

For example I always use errant or errantx (and sometimes tmorton166) as my handle. But it's not a hiding thing; it's mostly about ease. Finding my real name, for example, isn't particularly hard and I make little pains to hide it. That is, I think, the difference.

wgj• 17 years ago

You could just put your name on your about page. That's what a lot of people do.

panic• 17 years ago

I think this is inaccurate. _why conceals his identity behind a handle, and few people think of him as a loser. It's not about whether you use a handle or your real name -- it's about what you do with it.

ptn• 17 years ago

Concealing your identity makes you a loser if you do it so nobody can make you responsible for your acts. That was not _why's case, he did it because of privacy reasons.

mpk• 17 years ago

I have to disagree with esr on this.

Using a handle is different from being anonymous. Personally I don't really care if the person I'm communicating with is calling themselves john or w4r3zd00d. What I care about is the communication itself and the consistency of the other party.

I regularly converse with people who use an alias and if you participate in discussions around here, you do too.

Use a handle, don't use a handle, I don't care.

Be anonymous and troll, attack people or spew hatred and .. well, I won't care either - my mental filter will just drop you like martian packets.

olalonde2• 17 years ago

If you follow a tutorial on becoming a hacker than you are most likely not (and won't be) a hacker. Being a hacker is a state of mind.

igorgue• 17 years ago

I read this 6 years ago, and got me into Python, all I have to say is: thank you Eric S Raymond

ericlavigne• 17 years ago

I read the hacker-howto around the same time, and the list of languages was the best thing I got out of it, too. I already knew C and C++, so started working with Python. Python was a joy, but while using it for a couple small projects I researched the other languages I would be learning later. I couldn't resist skipping straight to Lisp, and it is still my favorite programming language. Thank you, esr.

0xbadcafebee2• 17 years ago

The more you try to become a Hacker, the less you are one.

0xbadcafebee2• 17 years ago

Haha, I love that this got downvoted so much. It shows the mentality of some of the people here. Apparently thirst for knowledge and clever ingenuity can be "learned".

ascuttlefish2• 17 years ago

I believe thirst for knowledge can be learned. Ask any child (or adult!) who gets their mind blown what they see through a magnifying glass or a telescope. Maybe that's not learning thirst for knowledge so much as kick-starting it, but I think it's close enough.

I'm not sure about clever ingenuity, but it's not a stretch to say that that's a faculty that can be exercised and cultivated, no matter how paltry or weak it is initially. A lot of things can be learned, states of mind included. Ask any Buddhist monk.

edit: formatting

olalonde2• 17 years ago

"There is perhaps a more general point here. If a language does too much for you, it may be simultaneously a good tool for production and a bad one for learning. It's not only languages that have this problem; web application frameworks like RubyOnRails, CakePHP, Django may make it too easy to reach a superficial sort of understanding that will leave you without resources when you have to tackle a hard problem, or even just debug the solution to an easy one."

Love this quote.

scotty79• 17 years ago

I've read this few years ago. I felt like this guy crept into my head, teared out my personal exact believes and published them on his website.

juliangamble• 17 years ago

"LISP is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot."

jrockway• 17 years ago

Step 42: write a "sex tips for geeks" article.

How To Become A Hacker

Related Stories