Good Hacker Cities
cookiecaper: I was going to suggest Salt Lake City, and you don't absolutely need a car here, but you're much better off with one. It meets all of your other criteria finely, though. There's a very large group of IT companies here, especially in Utah County, 15-30 miles south of Salt Lake. Predominantly, Novell (as well as the SCO Group) and other things.It's a relatively low-profile area, very clean, very safe, very nice people, and modern infrastructure and appliances. A great place to live and work, though I wouldn't want to raise children here.