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This 25th anniversary edition of Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers -- those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.

Levy profiles the imaginative brainiacs who found clever and unorthodox solutions to computer engineering problems. They had a shared sense of values, known as "the hacker ethic," that still thrives today. Hackers captures a seminal period in recent history when underground activities blazed a trail for today's digital world, from MIT students finagling access to clunky computer-card machines to the DIY culture that spawned the Altair and the Apple II.

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This 25th anniversary edition of Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers -- those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers. Levy profiles the imaginative brainiacs who found clever

Traces the history of hackers, from clunky computer card punching machines to the inner secrets of what would become the internet. This book also includes profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT railroad club and more; the shapers of the digital revolution.

A mere fifteen years ago, "computer nerds" were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captured a seminal moment when the risk-takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, "the hacker ethic"--first espoused here--is alive and well.

"Hacker" is often a derogatory term today, but 40 years ago, it referred to people who found clever and unorthodox solutions to computer engineering problems - a practice that became known as "the hacker ethic." In this book, Levy takes you from the true hackers of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club to the DIY culture that spawned the first personal computers - the Altair and the Apple II - and finally to the gaming culture of the early '80s. From students finagling access to clunky computer-card machines to engineers uncovering the secrets of what would become the Internet, Hackers captures a seminal period in history when underground activities blazed a trail for today's digital world.

Talks with the unconventional computer geniuses who were responsible for the computer revolution reveal the inside story and the shared ideals that motivated them.

With profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers captured a seminal moment when the risk-takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, the hacker ethic first espoused here is alive and well. --from publisher description.

Society regarded them as nerds - uncool prodigies who spoke in strange jargon and seemed interested only in the arcane culture of computers. Yet in their own minds they were explorers, risk-takers, even artists. They understood what we did not - that the future would be built upon the free exchange of information. They were the Hackers. Here are the true hackers at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, who formed a high-tech Valhalla based on the hacker ethic of digital liberation... the hardware hackers like Steve Wozniak, who designed a computer to impress his friends and wound up forming Apple Computer... the "phreaking" of Captain Crunch, who discovered in a cereal box a secret access into the phone company's long-distance lines... the software artists who create million-dollar computer games. America's most unlikely heroes, armed with keyboards and pocket protectors

Steven Levy's classic book about the original hackers of the computer revolution is now available in a special 25th anniversary edition, with updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zukerberg, Richard Stallman, and Tim O'Reilly.