The oath that physicians take, the Hippocratic Oath, boils down to: First do no harm.

That ought to be extended to programmers, sysadmins, and simple users everywhere. Hacking used to mean finding and fixing problems in software and/or hardware -- it did not mean causing damage to people, it meant helping people. It has, sadly, become a title for bad actors destroying systems, robbing people (companies and corporations are people too) of money, intellectual property and causing problems for all. Think about a company being shut down due to a hack attack and the number of employees being out of work (with no paycheck to support their families) and you get the idea. Hell, think about yourself if hackers manage to steal your identity, your banking credentials, everything that you hold dear. It's no different than robbers breaking in to your home and walking out with everything you have.

If you learn your craft as suggested by others in this thread and become a force for good you will earn the admiration of others. You will also earn the right to be proud of what you do rather than looking over your shoulder for authorities hunting you down and stopping you from causing harm. Trust me on this, it's far better to be proud of what you do than it is otherwise.

Settle down, learn your craft (by whatever means you find that fits you), be willing to take the advice of people that know more than you do, ask good questions, listen and learn from the answers.

And, first and always, do no harm.

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Hi.

Slackware would be a white hat with (just some) black stripes.

http://media.infobarrel.com/media/image/17409_max.jpg

No light or dark side. Just a good set of tools that could either do good or evil, save a life or destroy it: it is up to you to decide what to do with it.

A gun can be used to protect your family. It could also be used to murder.

A car could be used to save lives (e.g. taking someone to the hospital). It could also be used to run over an innocent baby girl and take her life.

Basically anything can be used either way. It is up to the user to decide what to do with the tools he (or she) has at hand.

Now Slackware can be (and IMHO, maybe more easily than other distros), used for anything. Slackware has no focus on easiness or certification or political agenda. It is, in some way more scientific than most other distros because it is agnostic and focus on being a platform for anything you want it to do.

Quoting a wiser man: have fun!