$Date: 1999/08/17 05:57:01 $

A Brief History of Hackerdom

My thumbnail sketch of he history of the hacker culture, maintained since about 1992. I revised, expanded, and HTMLized for the O'Reilly collection of my essays. The definitive history of the hacker culture remains to be written, probably not by me.

Here's the HTML. You can also download the original SGML. You can also download flat ASCII, Postscript, or a Pilot Doc version.

This chronicle is not `finished', and may never be. There is, after all, more history being made every day! I welcome feedback, suggestions, and corrections and will incorporate them into the paper. A change log is included at the end of the paper.

If you like this history, you will probably also enjoy my How To Become A Hacker FAQ.

Translations

A Japanese translation of an earlier version of this document is available.

A French translation of the 1999/02/02 version is available.

A Russian translation is is also available.

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$Date: 1999/08/17 05:57:01 $

Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>