Hacker culture

The hacker culture is the voluntary subculture which first developed in the 1960s among hackers working on early minicomputers in academic computer science environments. After 1969 it fused with the technical culture of the pioneers of the Internet, after 1980 with the culture of Unix, and after 1987 with elements of the early microcomputer hobbyists. Since the mid-1990s the hacker culture has been almost coincident with what is now called the open source movement.

Artifacts and customs

The hacker culture is defined by shared work and play focused around central artifacts. Some of these artifacts are very large; the Internet itself, the World Wide Web, the GNU project, and the Linux operating system are all hacker creations, works of which the culture considers itself primary custodian. The Wikipedia itself can be considered an artifact of hacker culture.

Related Topics:
World Wide Web - GNU project - Wikipedia

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Since 1990, the hacker culture has developed a rich range of symbols that serve as recognition symbols and reinforce its group identity. Tux, the Linux penguin, the BSD Daemon, and the Perl Camel stand out as examples. More recently, the use of the glider structure from Conway's Game of Life as a general Hacker Emblem has been proposed and appears to be gaining acceptance. All of these routinely adorn T-shirts, mugs, and other paraphernalia.

Related Topics:
1990 - Tux - Penguin - BSD Daemon - Perl Camel - Conway's Game of Life - Hacker Emblem - T-shirt - Mug

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Notably, the hacker culture appears to have exactly one annual ceremonial day—April Fool's. There is a long tradition of perpetrating elaborate jokes, hoaxes, pranks and fake websites on this date. This is so well established that hackers look forward every year to the publication of the annual joke RFC, and one is invariably produced.

Related Topics:
April Fool's - Hoax - Website - Joke RFC

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