Product Description

Hackers is a classic documentary about the midnight programmers that created the personal computer revolution.

Hackers is not about malicious code-crackers. It is about a "hacker ethic" that led to major breakthroughs in technology, and forever changed our world. From the first MIT hackers to popular Silicon Valley inventors, this program covers this fascinating cultural phenomenon through interviews with twelve of its early pioneers.

This half-hour program features conversations with: Steve Wozniak, designer of the Apple II; Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson, designers of the Macintosh; Homebrew Computer Club leader Lee Felsenstein; MIT hackers Richard Stallman and Richard Greenblatt; and many more.

Hackers was produced over a decade before the advent of the Internet. All interviews were shot over a long week-end in 1984, at the first Hackers Conference, hosted by Whole Earth Catalog editors Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelley, in Sausalito, California. This event was inspired by Steven Levy’s classic book Hackers – Heroes of the Computer Revolution.

Running time: 26 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35473 in DVD
• Released on: 1986-04-15
• Formats: Collector's Edition, Color, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 26 minutes

San Jose Mercury News - David Rosenthal, August 27, 1985
An affectionate and enjoyable trip through the minds of some of Hackdom’s biggest successes... Hackers is television worth watching.

Philadelphia Daily News - David Friedman, April 25, 1986
Hackers is the most charming, endearing, downright winsome documentary on public television in quite some time.

Washington Post - Michael Schrage, April 20, 1986
A pleasant peek into the hearts, minds and keyboards of the ultratalented computerniks who spawned the personal computer revolution.

Customer Reviews

Absolutely wonderful!
Talk about a walk down Memory Lane! This is absolutely priceless footage of the ORIGINAL hackers in all their glorious youth talking about sneaking into the Stanford mainframe computer after hours in order to "hack," staying up all night trying to make code work, Wozniak talking about the first Apple, or talking about "someday you'll be able to send messages," and all of them playing with the brand new Macintosh. This is like looking at an old photo album and sighing over the good old days. I'm sorry the previous reviewer didn't take the time to actually view the tape. It's well worth seeing and savoring.

Mildly interesting
Mildly interesting video. I had expected a bit more, but this is 30 minutes of a couple of people talking about how cool computers were - in 1980. Nice to see a very young Richard Stallman, and other notorious hackers (Steve Wozniak, Andy Hertzfeld), but all in all a low value video...

Great DVD
Being a geek history buff I really enjoyed this DVD.

If you've read Robert X. Cringely's "Accidental Empires", or watched his "Triumph of the Nerds" or "Nerds 2.0.1" videos, or read any of the other good geek history books like "Fire in the Valley" or "Silicon Boys", you will probably enjoy this video.

It's not a comprehensive history (it's only 26 minutes), but offers some cool interviews and other stuff from the pioneers of the modern "PC" era.

You can also watch one of my heroes, Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder), state how (at the time, in 1985) there were "too many" computer people creating too much software and other stuff, and how the market didn't need that much stuff. These days the number of geeks and computer products has increased exponentially though.. This is his equivalent of the Bill Gates "640k" statement around that same time I think. =)

It's a good video, I only wish it was longer.