Sucks/Rules sites

Ron Resnick (rresnick@dialogosweb.com)
Mon, 06 Jul 1998 16:17:41 -0400


Have others seen these sites? They're pretty good.

http://electriclichen.com/linux/srom.html

Has a "sucks/rule" meter for OSes. Basically,
looking for instances of things like "Windows sucks",
"Windows rules", "Linux rules" etc in Altavista,
and then graphing the results.

The graph is kinda interesting - Windows is deep in the 'suck'
column, Linux way into the 'rules'. I can just hear the
MS calls of 'fixed! fixed!' ;-). Well, it's all based on
freely distributed perl code, so if you do belong to a beat-up OS
camp, you can check for yourself if it's a fair fight or not.

Also neat is http://www.tpj.com/tpj/rules/
which does the same thing for languages. Python & Perl are
way ahead on the 'rules' side, while Java (gasp!) is lagging
Visual Basic.... ouch! That smarts! :-).

[How did I find these you ask? I figured I'd better finally
learn what all this Perl stuff is about, having been a Java
person for the last few years, and a C guy before that.
It's actually true what they say- you can learn perl in a day.
I just did, today. I guess I should pick up VB next, huh :)?]

A couple of funny/neat things in the Electriclichen faq
(http://electriclichen.com/linux/srom_faq.shtml):

What's with the "Caution to Exuberant OS Advocates"?
A few users of OSs that suck made some pathetic attempts at
Sucks-Rules-O-Meter spamming. None
of them worked. The meter did not move. If you understand AltaVista
well enough to move the
meter, you're too smart to waste your time trying to move the meter.
We don't know of anyone who
has had his or her site kicked out of AltaVista for Sucks-Rules-O-Meter
spamming; keep it that way.

and:

Hey! The Linux source code has "linux/Rules.make" in it! No fair!
We know. This doesn't raise the count of "Linux rules" much,
and besides, putting the source code for
your OS on the web rules.

Ron.

"If you understand AltaVista well enough to move the
meter, you're too smart to waste your time trying to move the meter."

I liked that.