Difference between the terms Hacking and Cracking stated by Mert sir of Free Software Foundation !

Posted by anhad on 2024/11/19

Mert sir works at Free Software Foundation. He is my teacher and mentor at FSF from whom i am learning how to create Self-hosted server for website, verification of Freedom software packages and entry work of Freedom software replacements. I have learned the difference between the terms ‘Hacking’ and ‘Cracking’ from him.

The term ‘Hacking’ means modifying the source code of the software by software programmers and modifying the hardware of the gadgets for improvement. Hacking is not only related with computers. Hacking means to explore and excel the skills but not stealing or cracking or exploiting something. So when we talk about computers, a hacker means someone who wants to improve his or her programming skills for understanding how computers work. Hackers do useful things. Contrary to the false belief, Hackers are not criminals.

Modifying the source code of software is one of the freedoms of philosophy/ideology of GNU Project and these softwares are called Freedom or Swatantra software. Please read the philosophy of Free software. Free means freedom and not free of cost :

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Hacker is someone who is exploring limits of the related activity such as a Jazz improvisation with any instrument, or practicing martial arts in a clever way by following the martial arts culture, so the hacker culture itself and martial arts culture or Jazz culture are very similar thus we can say for all of them in short “hacker”. They are all hackers. To be honest there are different approaches in hacker culture and this pluralism is what we need and like, and we encourage hackers to make their own practices and follow their own methodologies to do good and useful things for the public.
freedom is good
openness is good
collaboration is good
privacy is good
we demand to do good and useful things for the public and do not want to rely on any technology so we are authors and we can make something better replacing existing information and technology.

Happy hacking means may the happy hacking be with you as a wish to the related person. The name of some hackers are :

1. Abhas sir –

“I started Mostly Harmless in 2016 with the goal of (somehow) building a sustainable business out of providing affordable, accessible hardware solutions that could complement the extensive body of free software tools that already existed. Starting with hackable, mechanical keyboards, this ‘obsession’ with do-it-yourself, hackable hardware has broadened to include a whole lot more.

The core values espoused here are the most fundamental values that I personally live my life by. I don’t sell or offer anything that I am not using myself. I don’t sell or offer anything that I’ve not first used (and suffered through!) sufficiently.

I don’t intend to build or use anything that would use proprietary software, spy on its users or surveill them, take advantage of them or disrespect them in any way. Looking forward to working with you in sustaining this wonderful world of ethical and hackable products and solutions!”

Website of Mostly Harmless – https://mostlyharmless.io/about/

2. Mert Gor sir –

Website of Mert sir – https://labs.masscollabs.xyz/

3. Richard stallman sir –

Richard Stallman founded the free software movement in 1983 when he announced he would develop the GNU operating system, a Unix-like operating system meant to consist entirely of free software. He has been the GNU project’s leader ever since. In October 1985 he started the Free Software Foundation.

Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time in political advocacy for free software. Before that, Richard developed a number of widely used programs that are components of GNU.

Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.

Stallman graduated from Harvard in 1974 with a BA in physics. During his college years and after, he worked as a staff hacker at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, learning operating system development by doing it. He wrote the first extensible Emacs text editor there in 1975.

Website of Free Software Foundation –

https://fsf.org

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Crackers are criminals who steal and crack using backdoors in proprietary softwares. This is why we give them the name “crackers” and they are criminals. The name of some crackers are :