Editing Incompatible Timesharing System (section)

==User environment==
The environment seen by ITS users was philosophically significantly different from that provided by most operating systems at the time.<ref name="LevyWL" />
* Initially there were no [[passwords]], and a user could work on ITS without logging on.<ref name=AIM238>{{cite journal |last=Eastlake |first=Donald E. |date=1972 |title=ITS Status Report |journal=MIT AI Laboratory Memos |volume=AIM-238 |hdl=1721.1/6194}}</ref> Logging on was considered polite, though, so other people knew when one was active on the system.
* To deal with a rash of incidents where users sought out flaws in the system in order to [[crash (computing)|crash]] it, a novel approach was taken. A command which could be run by anyone would cause the system to crash, taking away the challenge and notoriety of doing so. It first also broadcast a message to say who was initiating the crash.
* All files were editable by all users, including [[documentation|online documentation]] and [[source code]]. A series of informal papers and technical notes documented new commands, technical issues, primitive games, mathematical puzzles, and other topics of interest to the ITS hacker community. Some were issued as more formal [[AI Memo]]s, including the iconic [[HAKMEM]] compendium.
* All users could talk with [[instant messaging]] on another's terminal, or they could use a command (SHOUT) to ask all active users for help.
* Users could [[Remote administration|see what was happening]] on another's terminal (using a command called OS for "output spy"). A target of OS could detect and kill it using another command called JEDGAR, named after [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. This facility was later disabled with a [[placebo]] command: it appeared as if the remote session was killed, but it was not.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/os-and-jedgar.html |title=OS and JEDGAR |work=The Jargon File |editor=Eric S. Raymond |editor-link=Eric S. Raymond |edition=4.4.7 |date=December 29, 2003 |access-date=December 21, 2009}}</ref>
* Tourists (guest users either at MIT AI Lab terminals, or over the ARPAnet) were tolerated and occasionally invited to actively join the ITS community. Informal policy on tourist access was later formalized in a written policy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/text/tourist-policy.html |title=MIT AI Lab Tourist Policy |date=January 15, 1997 |access-date=December 21, 2009}}</ref> Ease of access, with or without a guest account, allowed interested parties to informally explore and experiment with the operating system, application programs, and [[hacker culture]].  Working copies of documentation and source code could be freely consulted or updated by anybody on the system.
* System security, to the extent that it existed, was mostly-based on [[de facto]] "[[security by obscurity]]". Guest hackers willing to dedicate significant time and effort to learning ITS were expected to behave respectfully, and to avoid interfering with the research projects which funded the hardware and software systems. There was little of exclusive value on the ITS systems except information, much of which would eventually be published for free distribution, and open and free sharing of knowledge was generally encouraged.

The wide-open ITS philosophy and collaborative community were the direct forerunner of the [[free and open-source software]] (FOSS), [[Open-design movement|open-design]], and [[Wiki]] movements.<ref name=PanBonk>{{cite journal|last1=Pan|first1=Guohua|last2=Bonk|first2=Curtis J.|title=A Socio-Cultural Perspective on the Free and Open Source Software Movement|journal=International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning|date=April 2007|volume=4|issue=4|url=http://www.itdl.org/journal/apr_07/article01.htm|access-date=2014-06-02|archive-date=2014-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012214924/http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Apr_07/article01.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Stallman>{{cite book|last1=Stallman|first1=Richard M.|title=Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman|year=2002|page=13|publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=9781882114986|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJlNAgAAQBAJ&q=Incompatible+Timesharing+System+open+software&pg=PA13|access-date=2014-06-02}}</ref><ref name=HOSS>{{cite web|title=History of OSS|url=https://cunyonline.digication.com/softdev/History_of_OSS|website=Software Development for the Masses|access-date=2014-06-02}}</ref>