Rating: 
Summary: The Hacker Ethic-Reading Far Too Deep And Wrongly At That
Review: ... some people have called me a hacker, in the MIT sense of the word. I think that Pekka did a very nice job of describing the modern, digital society, but he did not do such a great job describing the reason hackers do what they do. Pekka gave several reasons why hackers hack, but in my view, they stretch far beyond the real reasons. I have a very different view: "I am a hacker. I do what I do because I think it is fun. I don't like authorities becuase they keep me from doing what I think is fun. I sleep in the day and hack at night becuase there are fewer distractions, and becuase I am naturally a night person. If I get paid to do what I like, that's all the better. I share my code becuase I have no reason not to." There is no such thing as a "typical" hacker. Sure, some hackers may know about the Protestant Work Ethic, but I had never heard of it untill I read this book. Other hackers may have their own reasons for their actions, and that is up to them alone. In my humble opinion, Pekka focused too much on the group and too little on the individual. I believe that the indvidual hacker is best summed up in the preface by Linus Torvalds with the line "[The hackers will] survive quite well on Twinkies and Jolt Cola." That is, "Food is a Good Thing. Now leave me alone. I'm busy." Of course, this is only my view, and you may view it your own way, and believe whatever you want. If you are a hacker and are not interested in a deep socialogical discussion, this book is not for you, and it will probably bore you. If you are an academic with more on your mind than "Food, Sleep, Code", then you might enjoy the book. I give it a two star rating becuase Linus wrote the prologue, and anything he writes I find well done becuase of his writing style.
Rating: 
Summary: Very bad and very simplistic
Review: A very simplistic work by a minor philosopher (I use this word lightly). Wow, so bad, so dumb, such a waste of time. Those other books you are considering reading first? Go again.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent through ch 4, then loses focus
Review: I bought and read this book because I enjoy reading about hacker history and culture. When I started, I simply read and flipped pages, thinking I wouldn't find much of deep importance. After about 20 pages I was extremely interested in the book and started underlining the author's main points. By chapter 5, and especially in chapter 6, the author lost my attention and I ended up giving this book a three star review.
The valuable core of 'The Hacker Ethic' lies in its comparison with the Protestant work ethic. The author explains that philosophy's roots in monastic life, and contrasts it with the 'hacker ethic' and its roots in academic/scientific practices. As a history major I thought this comparison was fascinating and it made me examine my own work habits more closely. The author's illumination of time-centric vs. task-centric work was especially interesting.
Linux kernel inventor Linus Torvalds wrote the prologue, so the entire book approaches the free/open software world from an overtly Linux perspective. One mention of BSD appears in a citation of Eric S. Raymond's 'Cathedral and the Bazaar.' ESR criticizes the BSD development model ('carefully coordinated... by a relatively small, tightly knit group of people') in comparison with Linux, where 'quality was maintained not by rigid standards or autocracy but by the naively simple strategy of releasing every week and getting feedback.' I think 'naive' is the operative word here. Linux has certainly prospered, but companies like IBM, Novell, and others are playing increasingly bigger roles.
If you can read Linus' prologue and the first four chapters in a book store, I recommend doing so. I believe the author does a nice job making comparisons with the Protestant work ethic, but doesn't quite know where to go next. Reading four chapters should take a couple of hours, and you'll walk away appreciating the keen insights author Pekka Himanen has to offer on 'The Hacker Ethic.'
Rating:
Summary: If you want to make a career of Hacking Dont read this book
Review: I bought it expecting to read about ways to have a career in hacking. It was well written, and the forward was good but it made people that want to live comfortably or become wealthy look like scum bags.
Rating:
Summary: Written by a sociologist for sociologists
Review: I originally picked up this book more for amusement than anything else, considering it another one of those books about kids who stay up all night writing radical programs and their nocturnal habits. I was wrong. This book is best decribed in the prologue written by Linus Torvolds himself. He states that when he first met the author it was at a convention of 'sociologists talking about technology'. Well this book is written by just such a person... a sociologist. And one by my observation who decided to write a book about technology without any real knowledge of the spectrum of subcultures in the technology arena. In a way it seems like a sociological report one would make to his peers, who without any real background in the subject would deem well written,as previous reviews above have shown, but for the rest of us, there is much more interesting literature out there. And hopefully sometime in the very near future he will cease his contributing his, at best, amateur opinions on this subject to himself, and allow those with a true insight to document the culture. While I greatly respect Linus Torvalds and his contributions to the world, he only lends credibility to a book that no one else wouldeven consider without his name being mentioned.
Rating: 
Summary: An important idea, an important book
Review: I should say up front that I'm not totally disinterested in the Hacker Ethic. I'm a media critic and author and I blurbed this book, something I don't do a lot. I did -- and am writing this review -- because I feel strongly that this is a very important book advancing a central idea -- the hacker ethic, profoundly misunderstood and demonized by the popular media, is important, both to politics and work. This isn't another in the avalanche of impenetrable cyber-culture books. It looks backwards as well as forwards, to the Protestant Ethic that has shaped many of our lives, and beyond, to the hacker joy and passion. The hacker ethic has trigger a true social and cultural revolution. Himanen (who I don't know) traces its roots, and perhaps more importantly, where it can take us. This is very important. If journalists, CEO's and others would read this book carefully, they might get ahead of the Net Revolution for once, instead of scrambling continuously to figure out where the world is going. If you want to know, this is a good place to start. It is also a very noble endeavor to finally give the hackers their due in the evolution of the modern world. It's not a big dense read either, which it easily could have been. It is a small book and moves quickly. It's ideas are accessible, and very, very convincing.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for outsiders
Review: I would highly recommend this book to people in the MCSE or management crowd who want to understand what motivates people to work on complex software projects without receiving any monetary reward. Although I would not classify myself as a hacker in the strictest sense of the definition, most people would consider me to be one. I find most of this information to be commonly known or discussed amongst the geek community, but it's great to have such keen insight packed in to this small book. Even if you're familiar with hacker culture, it's always insightful to look at subjects through the eyes of others.
Rating:
Summary: No bad, but not what you might think.
Review: I'll agree with the reviews by "a reader" and by Mikko on various points. The book does not do a particular good job of explaining who individual hackers are and why they do what they do. In retrospect, I don't think that is what the author intended to accomplish. But that wasn't what I expected. This is a scholarly work and is not light reading. If you don't want to be reading a thesis on changing social movements, then this isn't a book for you. This isn't called "The Hacker Ethic" because it's about hackers any more than "The Protestant Ethic" is really about Protestants. The Hacker Ethic is merely the author's label for an attitude toward life and work which happens to be exhibited by hackers. This book is about that social attitude (a changing emphasis on flexibility in work and play and time) and not about hackers -- except as that social attitude may relate to individuals. I also found the description of modern/digital society to be very interesting in the first part of the work, but it did get thicker as the work went on. Some of his later comparisons seems unclear and not nearly as well developed as earlier portions of the work. The conclusions felt lacking, but that doesn't seem uncommon in this type of work. I certainly don't regret reading this, as it did open my eyes to some aspects of the modern society which I hadn't noticed or which I tickled the back of my brain but hadn't seen clearly enough to put into words. It was not at all what I expected, but worthwhile, nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: The book in it's self is contradictive to it's objective...
Review: I'm only 1/4 of the way through so far. I find it amusing that the author, obviously a believer in his writings, chooses to sell his book rather than provide it free of charge for all to download. This seems to go against the hacker ethic ;). That aside, thus far it appears to be a worthy read. Reading the first three chapters has given me a slightly different perspective on my job and gave me a reason to be proud of my authority complex. Tomorrow I am going to revolt againt my bosses and tell them I'll work when I want to (If anybody reading this is looking to hire a developer with hacker ethics I will be needing a job tomorrow).
Rating:
Summary: The book in it's self is contradictive to it's objective...
Review: I'm only 1/4 of the way through so far. I find it amusing that the author, obviously a believer in his writings, chooses to sell his book rather than provide it free of charge for all to download. This seems to go against the hacker ethic ;). That aside, thus far it appears to be a worthy read. Reading the first three chapters has given me a slightly different perspective on my job and gave me a reason to be proud of my authority complex. Tomorrow I am going to revolt againt my bosses and tell them I'll work when I want to (If anybody reading this is looking to hire a developer with hacker ethics I will be needing a job tomorrow).
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