Copyright does not exist
In complement to the book of Bruce Sterling, here is another history of hackers.
But this time written by a Swedish computer enthousiast, Linus Walleij.
“The word originally applied to the people who spent their time crawling under the railroad tracks at the Tech Model Railroad Club’s (TMRC) facilities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1950’s, connecting switches and relays with cables. This model railroad was one of the first computer-like structures. A hack originally meant a prank of the kind that students and faculty played on their school (or rivaling institutions), such as wrapping the entire roof in tinfoil. A good hack would be very conspicuous, and also prompt the observer to ask him- or herself: “How in the hell did they do that!?”. Later, the word became synonymous with a spectacular solution to a technical problem, or an ingenious computer program, or some other generally brilliant design. A hacker , therefore, was someone who created and implemented things of this kind.
A hacker, generally speaking, is a person who uses a computer for its own sake because it’s fun. An author that uses a word processor all day is not a hacker. Neither is a graphic designer, inventory specialist, or computer instructor. Their professions simply require them to use a computer to simplify or improve the efficiency of some other task. However, a programmer that loves his or her work is a hacker. Likewise, an enthusiastic computer technician or microcomputer designer is also a hacker. Last but definitely not least, there are hobby hackers , who actually constitute the largest and most overlooked group of computer enthusiasts – probably because they don’t use a computer in a professional sense. These amateurs do not have PR directors shouting their cause, nor do they have publishers or trade journals that print their opinions. Some elements of the media focus on this group, but they seldom speak for them; rather, the computer media generally focuses on “bringing up” the amateurs to the standards and norms of the professionals. ”