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From: pstlb@aurora.alaska.edu
Subject: Where did the hacker ethic go?
Message-ID: <1993May1.092058.1@aurora.alaska.edu>
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Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Date: Sat, 1 May 1993 17:20:58 GMT


  A great many computer programmers read "Dr. Dobb's Journal".  In a recent
issue, there was a paragraph in an article that pained me greatly to read.  It
said:

  "There's nothing wrong if Microsoft setting the standards for the computer
industry.  The industry NEEDS an IBM for the 90's."

  Where has the hacker ethic gone?  Not the "cracker" ethic, which is something
entirely different and bad, but the hacker ethic, which tells us to value the
free distribution of information and yield to the hands-on imperative?  Why is
it that people and corporations like Bill Gates, IBM, and Intel are able to
have a virtual dead lock on the computer industry?  Why is it that, if a person
like myself posts messages to Usenet on how to get into the little nooks,
crannies, and idiosyncrasies of a computer system, they are not given any
useful information by those who know, just a badmouthing? (or are completely
ignored)  Why is it that people like Steve Jobs have to abandon their efforts to
make truly innovative products?  I ask those of you who call yourselves
hackers, why is this?  And further, how can you let it go on?  It is a fact
that the computer industry has changed the world, and shall continue to do so
for a long time to come.  It has allowed the propagation of information in a
volume unheard of even twenty years ago, and has made this world even smaller
than it was before.  I shudder to think what that world will be like if the
corporations are allowed to have their way, perpetuating more drivel like the
286, Windows, and the IBM product line on the computer-using public.  

  That is not to say I am against business per se; people who profit off of
innovative, intelligent, creative designs do not bother me.  In fact, I applaud
it; that is the American way.  But those who manage to sell kludgy, uncreative
systems to the public, and profit off of them, are the ones who are the
problem.  And, unfortunately, because they have enough money to make up for
blunt stupidity, they can keep doing it for a very long time.

  I put it to you thus:  Where HAS the hacker ethic gone?  If it still exists,
where?  And, if it DOES exist, why are those who call themselves "hackers"
allowing this to perpetuate itself?  Why are they not creating new, innovative,
interesting ideas to stop the SOS from maintaining its choke hold on the
computer industry?

  I await with interest what will probably be a resounding silence.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  pstlb@acad3.alaska.edu     |  "Revenge is a dish best served cold."       |
|  "Szechuan Death"           |          - Khan Singh                        |
|                             |            "Star Trek II:  The Wrath of Khan"|
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