Q:
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How do I tell if I am already a hacker?
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A:
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Ask yourself the following three questions:
·
Do you speak code, fluently?
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Do you identify with the goals
and values of the hacker community?
·
Has a well-established member of
the hacker community ever called you a hacker?
If you can answer yes to all three of these
questions, you are already a hacker. No two alone are sufficient.
The first test is about skills. You probably pass it if you
have the minimum technical skills described earlier in this document. You
blow right through it if you have had a substantial amount of code accepted
by an open-source development project.
The second test is about attitude. If the five principles of the hacker mindset seemed
obvious to you, more like a description of the way you already live than
anything novel, you are already halfway to passing it. That's the inward
half; the other, outward half is the degree to which you identify with the
hacker community's long-term projects.
Here is an incomplete but indicative list of some of those
projects: Does it matter to you that Linux improve and spread? Are you
passionate about software freedom? Hostile to monopolies? Do you act on the
belief that computers can be instruments of empowerment that make the world a
richer and more humane place?
But a note of caution is in order here. The hacker community
has some specific, primarily defensive political interests — two of them are
defending free-speech rights and fending off
"intellectual-property" power grabs that would make open source
illegal. Some of those long-term projects are civil-liberties organizations
like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the outward attitude properly
includes support of them. But beyond that, most hackers view attempts to
systematize the hacker attitude into an explicit political program with
suspicion; we've learned, the hard way, that these attempts are divisive and
distracting. If someone tries to recruit you to march on your capitol in the
name of the hacker attitude, they've missed the point. The right response is
probably “Shut up and show them the code.”
The third test has a tricky element of recursiveness about
it. I observed in the section called “What Is a Hacker?” that
being a hacker is partly a matter of belonging to a particular subculture or
social network with a shared history, an inside and an outside. In the far
past, hackers were a much less cohesive and self-aware group than they are
today. But the importance of the social-network aspect has increased over the
last thirty years as the Internet has made connections with the core of the
hacker subculture easier to develop and maintain. One easy behavioral index
of the change is that, in this century, we have our own T-shirts.
Sociologists, who study networks like those of the hacker
culture under the general rubric of "invisible colleges", have noted
that one characteristic of such networks is that they have gatekeepers — core
members with the social authority to endorse new members into the network.
Because the "invisible college" that is hacker culture is a loose
and informal one, the role of gatekeeper is informal too. But one thing that
all hackers understand in their bones is that not every hacker is a
gatekeeper. Gatekeepers have to have a certain degree of seniority and
accomplishment before they can bestow the title. How much is hard to quantify,
but every hacker knows it when they see it.
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Q:
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Will you teach me how to hack?
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A:
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Since first publishing this page, I've gotten several
requests a week (often several a day) from people to "teach me all about
hacking". Unfortunately, I don't have the time or energy to do this; my
own hacking projects, and working as an open-source advocate, take up 110% of
my time.
Even if I did, hacking is an attitude and skill you
basically have to teach yourself. You'll find that while real hackers want to
help you, they won't respect you if you beg to be spoon-fed everything they
know.
Learn a few things first. Show that you're trying, that
you're capable of learning on your own. Then go to the hackers you meet with
specific questions.
If you do email a hacker asking for advice, here are two
things to know up front. First, we've found that people who are lazy or
careless in their writing are usually too lazy and careless in their thinking
to make good hackers — so take care to spell correctly, and use good grammar
and punctuation, otherwise you'll probably be ignored. Secondly, don't dare
ask for a reply to an ISP account that's different from the account you're
sending from; we find people who do that are usually thieves using stolen accounts,
and we have no interest in rewarding or assisting thievery.
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Q:
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How can I get started, then?
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A:
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The best way for you to get started would probably be to go
to a LUG (Linux user group) meeting. You can find such groups on the LDP General Linux
Information Page; there is probably one near you, possibly associated
with a college or university. LUG members will probably give you a Linux if
you ask, and will certainly help you install one and get started.
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Q:
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When do you have to start? Is it too late for me to learn?
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A:
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Any age at which you are motivated to start is a good age.
Most people seem to get interested between ages 15 and 20, but I know of
exceptions in both directions.
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Q:
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How long will it take me to learn to hack?
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A:
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That depends on how talented you are and how hard you work
at it. Most people who try can acquire a respectable skill set in eighteen
months to two years, if they concentrate. Don't think it ends there, though;
in hacking (as in many other fields) it takes about ten years to achieve
mastery. And if you are a real hacker, you will spend the rest of your life
learning and perfecting your craft.
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Q:
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Is Visual Basic a good language to start with?
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A:
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If you're asking this question, it almost certainly means
you're thinking about trying to hack under Microsoft Windows. This is a bad
idea in itself. When I compared trying to learn to hack under Windows to
trying to learn to dance while wearing a body cast, I wasn't kidding. Don't
go there. It's ugly, and it never stops being ugly.
There is a specific problem with Visual Basic; mainly that
it's not portable. Though there is a prototype open-source implementations of
Visual Basic, the applicable ECMA standards don't cover more than a small set
of its programming interfaces. On Windows most of its library support is
proprietary to a single vendor (Microsoft); if you aren't extremely
careful about which features you use — more careful than any newbie is really
capable of being — you'll end up locked into only those platforms Microsoft
chooses to support. If you're starting on a Unix, much better languages with
better libraries are available. Python, for example.
Also, like other Basics, Visual Basic is a poorly-designed
language that will teach you bad programming habits. No, don't ask
me to describe them in detail; that explanation would fill a book. Learn a
well-designed language instead.
One of those bad habits is becoming dependent on a single
vendor's libraries, widgets, and development tools. In general, any language
that isn't fully supported under at least Linux or one of the BSDs, and/or at
least three different vendors' operating systems, is a poor one to learn to
hack in.
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Q:
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Would you help me to crack a system, or teach me how to
crack?
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A:
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No. Anyone who can still ask such a question after reading
this FAQ is too stupid to be educable even if I had the time for tutoring.
Any emailed requests of this kind that I get will be ignored or answered with
extreme rudeness.
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Q:
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How can I get the password for someone else's account?
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A:
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This is cracking. Go away, idiot.
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Q:
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How can I break into/read/monitor someone else's email?
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A:
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This is cracking. Get lost, moron.
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Q:
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How can I steal channel op privileges on IRC?
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A:
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This is cracking. Begone, cretin.
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Q:
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I've been cracked. Will you help me fend off further
attacks?
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A:
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No. Every time I've been asked this question so far, it's
been from some poor sap running Microsoft Windows. It is not possible to
effectively secure Windows systems against crack attacks; the code and
architecture simply have too many flaws, which makes securing Windows like
trying to bail out a boat with a sieve. The only reliable prevention starts
with switching to Linux or some other operating system that is designed to at
least be capable of security.
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Q:
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I'm having problems with my Windows software. Will you help
me?
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A:
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Yes. Go to a DOS prompt and type "format c:". Any
problems you are experiencing will cease within a few minutes.
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Q:
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Where can I find some real hackers to talk with?
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A:
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The best way is to find a Unix or Linux user's group local
to you and go to their meetings (you can find links to several lists of user
groups on the LDP site at
ibiblio).
(I used to say here that you wouldn't find any real hackers
on IRC, but I'm given to understand this is changing. Apparently some real
hacker communities, attached to things like GIMP and Perl, have IRC channels
now.)
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Q:
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Can you recommend useful books about hacking-related
subjects?
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A:
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I maintain a Linux
Reading List HOWTO that you may find helpful. The Loginataka
may also be interesting.
For an introduction to Python, see the tutorial on
the Python site.
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Q:
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Do I need to be good at math to become a hacker?
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A:
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No. Hacking uses very little formal mathematics or
arithmetic. In particular, you won't usually need trigonometry, calculus or
analysis (there are exceptions to this in a handful of specific application
areas like 3-D computer graphics). Knowing some formal logic and Boolean
algebra is good. Some grounding in finite mathematics (including finite-set
theory, combinatorics, and graph theory) can be helpful.
Much more importantly: you need to be able to think
logically and follow chains of exact reasoning, the way mathematicians do.
While the content of most mathematics won't help you, you will need the
discipline and intelligence to handle mathematics. If you lack the
intelligence, there is little hope for you as a hacker; if you lack the
discipline, you'd better grow it.
I think a good way to find out if you have what it takes is
to pick up a copy of Raymond Smullyan's book What Is The Name Of This
Book?. Smullyan's playful logical conundrums are very much in the hacker
spirit. Being able to solve them is a good sign; enjoying solving
them is an even better one.
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Q:
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What language should I learn first?
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A:
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XHTML (the latest dialect of HTML) if you don't already know
it. There are a lot of glossy, hype-intensive bad HTML books out
there, and distressingly few good ones. The one I like best is HTML: The
Definitive Guide.
But HTML is not a full programming language. When you're
ready to start programming, I would recommend starting with Python. You will hear a lot of
people recommending Perl, but it's harder to learn and (in my opinion) less
well designed.
C is really important, but it's also much more difficult
than either Python or Perl. Don't try to learn it first.
Windows users, do not settle for Visual Basic. It
will teach you bad habits, and it's not portable off Windows. Avoid.
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Q:
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What kind of hardware do I need?
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A:
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It used to be that personal computers were rather
underpowered and memory-poor, enough so that they placed artificial limits on
a hacker's learning process. This stopped being true in the mid-1990s; any
machine from an Intel 486DX50 up is more than powerful enough for development
work, X, and Internet communications, and the smallest disks you can buy
today are plenty big enough.
The important thing in choosing a machine on which to learn
is whether its hardware is Linux-compatible (or BSD-compatible, should you
choose to go that route). Again, this will be true for almost all modern
machines. The only really sticky areas are modems and wireless cards; some
machines have Windows-specific hardware that won't work with Linux.
There's a FAQ on hardware compatibility; the latest version
is here.
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Q:
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I want to contribute. Can you help me pick a problem to work
on?
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A:
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No, because I don't know your talents or interests. You have
to be self-motivated or you won't stick, which is why having other people
choose your direction almost never works.
Try this. Watch the project announcements scroll by on Freshmeat for a few days. When
you see one that makes you think "Cool! I'd like to work on that!",
join it.
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Q:
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Do I need to hate and bash Microsoft?
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A:
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No, you don't. Not that Microsoft isn't loathsome, but there
was a hacker culture long before Microsoft and there will still be one long
after Microsoft is history. Any energy you spend hating Microsoft would be
better spent on loving your craft. Write good code — that will bash Microsoft
quite sufficiently without polluting your karma.
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Q:
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But won't open-source software leave programmers unable to
make a living?
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A:
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This seems unlikely — so far, the open-source software
industry seems to be creating jobs rather than taking them away. If having a
program written is a net economic gain over not having it written, a
programmer will get paid whether or not the program is going to be
open-source after it's done. And, no matter how much "free"
software gets written, there always seems to be more demand for new and
customized applications. I've written more about this at the Open Source pages.
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Q:
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Where can I get a free Unix?
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A:
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If you don't have a Unix installed on your machine yet,
elsewhere on this page I include pointers to where to get the most commonly
used free Unix. To be a hacker you need motivation and initiative and the ability
to educate yourself. Start now...
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