Homesteading the Noosphere

In Homesteading the Noosphere, Eric S. Raymond analyses the hacker culture as a gift culture: Social status is determined not by what you control but by what you give away.

Hacker

"real" programmer

Cracker

pirate

The hacker ethic according to Steven Levy in Hackers:Heroes of the Computer Revolution:

• Access to computers - and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works - should be unlimited and total.
• All information should be free.
• Mistrust authority - promote decentralization.
• Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
• You can create art and beauty on a computer.
• Computers can change your life for the better.
• Like Aladdin's lamp, you could get it to do your bidding.