Hacker vs. Cracker
Recently, there have been a plethora comments coming from people who should know better concerning terms like ‘hacker,’ or more appropriately ‘hacking.’ I would link to some of the examples, but they have been removed. It is ironic that many of these comments came from atheists who should be sympathetic to being labeled as something that has different meanings depending on if it’s self-labeled or applied by someone else. Atheists realize they are only ‘non-theists’ while many theists have the tendency to view atheists as something much more horrible, and very far from reality.
When the lay person uses the word ‘hacker’ or any of it’s forms, they are usually refering to some sort of illegal, or at the very least, annoying activity. Things like breaking into someone’s computer, launching ddos attacks, stealing identities, and the like. This is not how the term was originally meant to be used. The proper word to describe these activities is ‘cracking.’ A person who cracks into computer systems is a cracker, not a hacker.
So what is a hacker? Here are a few definitions from the Jargon file:
- A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. RFC1392, the Internet Users’ Glossary, usefully amplifies this as: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular.
- A person who is good at programming quickly.
- An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
- One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to view these as good things – as things to strive towards.
It is a big problem that the words can have such varying meanings. Even though I know the difference, I’ve been known to use them inappropriately when talking to people who don’t know the difference and don’t want to know the difference. It’s very frustrating when these people are atheists people who should know better. I don’t know how to solve this problem, but I’m open to ideas. I like the label of hacker, though I don’t think it can really apply to me. I’m simply not good enough. Never-the-less, I do hope that this post has raised some consciousness about the issues involved here.
