TheHackersManual2015RevisedEdition

Hacker! Lock up the children and hide the silver! Hacking has a bad name in the mainstream press, but we know the truth, hacking has much nobler roots.

It’s generally held as originating at MIT, in the 1960s, as a term for the crème de la crème of programmers. They were the master alchemists of languages such as Fortran, and known for pushing them beyond their limitations and making them work in ways they were never intended – what they achieved often felt like magic.

Hacking is really about making the most of

your systems, turning the conventional into the unconventional, and subverting tools to tasks no one thought possible. And like the original hackers it’s about a hunger for knowledge, which is why we’ve laid out the best tutorials and the most useful features from the most recent issues of Linux Format as a feast for the hungry hacker to devour.

You’ll learn things like how to stay anonymous online; how to secure your phone; how to take control of all your data and set up a personal cloud and even learn a few web cracks that the ‘Dark Side’ may try to fling in your direction.

We think this year’s Hacker Manual is the best one yet. Tuck in and enjoy the hack!

Guru Guides are designed to help experienced technology users dive deeper into a subject. Whether you’re learning a new programming language or planning to start a new business, each book aspires to be…

Ο A reference you can keep on your desk or next to your

computer and consult time and time again when you need to know how to do something or solve a problem

Ο A teacher – helping you develop your skills and take with you through your life, applying them at home or even in the workplace

Ο A challenge – we know that you know the basics so instead of patronising you we’ll suggest new things to try and help you take your knowledge to the next level

e often hear how wonderful WLinux is for older hardware,

and it is. Linux enables many users to keep using

systems that others would be forced to discard. But statements like that are also doing Linux a disservice, and

give the impression that it’s just a poor man’s operating system for hardware that’s no longer up to running the latest and greatest [<cough> - Ed] version of Windows.

Nothing could be further from the truth, Linux has some cutting edge software available, although the mainstream distros do not always reflect this. The distro development teams have to worry about compatibility and stability, so they generally

default to using stable, well tested software. Even popular distros such as Ubuntu, which uses Debian Testing packages and has a reputation for being forward looking, doesn’t use the very latest software.

So what do you do if you want to try life on

the bleeding edge? What software is out there that the distros are not yet using and how can you try it for yourself?

Over the next few pages, we will look at some of the new technologies being developed for Linux, but not in a theoretical

way. This is the stuff that may well appear in your favourite distribution next year, but we will show you how you can try it now.

You can see what the future holds, as we show you how to install it. We will also look at some of the pitfalls surrounding doing

this, after all, there is a reason the distros don’t include the latest experimental code, and show you how to try it without risking your system or your sanity. It doesn’t really matter which distro you currently

use, although some do make it easier than others (such as Arch or Gentoo) but something like the ubiquitious Ubuntu (or one of its derivatives, such as Linux Mint) or OpenSUSE or Fedora are also an excellent base for experimentation.