Try!

Yoda's philosophy (There is no ``try'') sounds neat, but it doesn't work for me. I have done most of my work while anxious about whether I could do the job, and unsure that it would be enough to achieve the goal if I did. But I tried anyway, because there was no one but me between the enemy and my city. Surprising myself, I have sometimes succeeded.

Sometimes I failed; some of my cities have fallen. Then I found another threatened city, and got ready for another battle. Over time, I've learned to look for threats and put myself between them and my city, calling on other hackers to come and join me.

Nowadays, I'm often not the only one. It is a relief and a joy when I see a regiment of hackers digging in to hold the line, and I realize this city may survive -- for now. But the dangers are greater each year, and now Microsoft has explicitly targeted our community. We can't take the future of freedom for granted. Don't take it for granted! If you want to keep your freedom, you must be prepared to defend it.

1.

The use of ``hacker'' to mean ``security breaker'' is a confusion on the part of the mass media. We hackers refuse to recognize that meaning, and continue using the word to mean, ``Someone who loves to program and enjoys being clever about it.''

2.

As an atheist, I don't follow any religious leaders, but I sometimes find I admire something one of them has said.

3.

In 1984 or 1985, Don Hopkins (a very imaginative fellow) mailed me a letter. On the envelope he had written several amusing sayings, including this one: ``Copyleft -- all rights reversed.'' I used the word ``copyleft'' to name the distribution concept I was developing at the time.

4.

``Bourne Again Shell'' is a joke on the name ``Bourne Shell,'' which was the usual shell on Unix.