According to MIT, hacking is a very broad field which includes anything that must be figured out through complex problem solving and patience (hacked). It can be anything from fixing code to putting a police car on the top of the MIT dome.

Cracking, according to the way I've most commenly heard it (one of these places was MIT also) is anything that involves breaking in through a password or security lock: "Cracking" a system (like you would crack an egg). You can also crack software, much the same way you would crack a system: by trying different password codes or finding a back door to the registration codes. This is sort of illegal if it involves copies of the software not are legally owned, but it's technechally not the cracking itself that is illegal, but the instalation and use of the software. Cracking can be hacking (because it can take problem solving), and when it's not sanctioned, it's illegal.

One of the few times I've turned on the TV in the last three years, I stumbled onto a show about hackers. One of the things that was mentioned is that most hackers are in the trade to alert companies that they have security problems that need fixed. And then there's Microsoft...

A lot of hackers don't get hunted because they aren't really causing any harm, even if they are not allways within the bounds of the law. Then there's the average tech: the totally legal and very necicary hacker. Let's not forget those people who are just trying to improve their own system either. There is even a team of people who work on a contract basis to try and break systems for the producers of the systems as a security test (the military made it five days on one system and it made news in one of my science mags, for an idea of the level these people work at). Of course the only hackers we hear about are the ones that cause damage, which is unfortunate, but logical.

A lot of kids who call themselves hackers use "hacking" programs for both windows and linux. Most of these kids eventually have something happen to them ranging from arrest to a slap in the face from people like the ones my father works with, who send them an e-mail with their ISP, port usage, c drive directory structure, etc. and tell them that if they ever come back out of their corner they better be for real. I've heard of people loosing a system beyond repair to angry sysadmins.

Most of the people who do "real" hacking of the kind we hear about use linux because it's a lot more powerfull than an MS OS. For this reason a Linux Fire Wall can be a burden rather than a boon, because anyone who actually has the skill to hack it definatly will, just for the sake of the available tools (I know this from personal experience of having been hacked). Linux is also closer to UNIX, the original OS (okay, so don't jump on me for that one: UNIX was the most common early mainframe OS, and I'm not claiming any more than that), and therefore the language of the internet. Ping and finger work in MS DOS, but I'm not sure tracerought or anything more complex does. Also, Linux reads UNIX, Linux, Fat16 & Fat32 (MS), and Mac OS file systems. Try reading a Linux file system from Windows without some serious bells and whisltes. It's also more stable, and since the last thing anybodie wants is to have their computer crash and leave them loggind in to the server they just cracked, that aspect holds considerable appeal.

Geeze you guys. Red Hat was a joke. You know, refuring to the Red Hat dist. of linux? It had nothing to do with an _actuall_ classification of hackers. I got it! Lighten up a bit.

PS. According to American Heritage:
hacker (hak??r) noun
1.      Computer Science. a. One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff. b. One who illegally gains access to or enters another's electronic system to obtain secret information or steal money.

cracker (krak'?r) noun
A person who overcomes the security measures of a computer system and gains unauthorized access. The goal of some crackers is to obtain information illegally from a computer system or use computer resources. However, the goal of the majority is to merely break into the system.

Microsoft Press® Computer and Internet Dictionary © & ? 1997, 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Portions, The Microsoft Press® Computer Dictionary, 3rd Edition, Copyright © 1998 by Microsoft Press. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.

Have fun.