Hackers

Executive Summary: Probably a must read for anyone who wants a deeper appreciation for the early days of the computer revolution.

Full Review
The less technical among you may be unaware that hacker as most people know/use it these days has been purloined from a group of men who apply a much different definition.

The original hackers may have ignored the rules, but they certainly would have never thought to steal passwords, bank accounts or write computer viruses. Then again, they also would put much stock in the notion of actually having password protected accounts, or care much about money so long as they could keep hacking away.

I found the first section about MIT is the 50's and 60's interesting, but often very slow. I feel like Mr. Levy spent too much time harping on the Hacker Ethic. I guess that was sort of the point of the book he set up out to write, but I would have preferred more of an account of the people and accomplishments.

The section on the 70's with the Homebrew Computer Club, Woz and the early days of apple might be my favorite. My first computer was an Apple IIgs in the late 80's. It's the only Apple product I own, and probably a long way from the original Apple II Woz designed in the 70's, but it still holds a special place in my heart. Without it I'm not sure if I'd work in computers today. I never tore it apart to learn how it worked or learned to code on it, but it sparked an interest in computers that has yet to fade.

The section on the 80's and Sierra and the early days of PC gaming might have been my favorite. I loved a lot of Sierra games in the 90's, in particular King's Quest 6/7 and all 3 Gabriel Knight games. I've backed several former Sierra developers on Kickstarter the last 2 years. It was interesting to read about the early days of that company and the games that laid the foundation for the games I loved as a kid.

The final brief section on Richard Stallman was so-so. I have a love/hate relationship with Mr. Stallman. The guys comes off as kind of an asshole. But without him/GNU, I doubt Linux would have ever taken off like him, and that powers so much of the things I love, including all my various Android devices.

I'm a big proponent of the open source movement that came out of his efforts, but don't necessarily agree that all software should be free and shared. I think there is a lot of merit shared code and my job is made easier by some of the more prominent open source projects out there.

However, it's unreasonable to think that someone is going to want to pay quality software developers for the sake of simply writing good code to share. And it's unreasonable to expect people to write quality software for free in their spare time. I think Mr. Stallman's unwillingness to concede this has hurt his own cause in many ways.

Overall this was a pretty good read, though it got a bit slow and repetitive in places, and less detailed that I would have liked on others. It makes me want to pick up a few more books that get more detailed on the early days of Apple and gaming companies in the 80's and 90's.

This was a really interesting look at the history of computers as a DIY technology, stretching from the 1950s to the 1980s, when the first edition of it was published.

I find a lot of computer users look at the things like they're magic boxes, likely run by black magic and/or hamsters running in wheels; I confess to having moments where I've felt that way myself, but I'm trying to educate myself a bit more on how computers actually think and operate, and this book helped cement that understanding a bit more.

Additionally, this book reinforced two of the truisms I've repeatedly encountered when studying subcultures.

The market will replace your values with its own. It seems to me that subcultural movements tend to have certain values to them that make them popular with certain segments of the public. As they gain more popularity, the mainstream starts to notice them, and tries to find ways to monetize them, even if the movement was one that was based originally around non-commercial values. This is how we end up with Iggy Pop songs being used to sell Disney Cruise tours, and fashion that exploits women and their sexuality being marketed as “girl power” feminism. It's also how we end up with a generation of computer hackers who can't understand why anyone would want to buy a pre-assembled computer with the software already loaded on it.

History never ends. One of the main recurring conflicts in Hackers relates to who has access to computer information - we see this with the MIT gurus in the 50s trying to limit access to their computers, and again with the tales of early software users wanting to freely share programs vs. the companies wanting to use copy-prevention to increase their profits. And we see the same conflict now with the open source movement vs. proprietary software, and DRM media files vs. the Creative Commons. It's one that will probably continue as long as people are recording information by the bit, which should ensure that Hackers remains somewhat relevant for generations to come.