Linux Journal 1999 Readers' Choice 28
Carlie Fairchild writes "Linux Journal opened its polls for its fifth annual Readers' Choice Awards. The polls will be open until October 15, 1999. It's your opportunity
to vote for your favorite Linux software, hardware and companies." Seems like there are quite a number of options in each category this year
I'm at a loss here.. (Score:1)
I'm taking for granted this is a real-world dead-trees thing? (the blurb thing wasn't terribly clear about it)
Readers Choice Awards... (Score:1)
-- Moondog
Re:I'm at a loss here.. (Score:1)
We're not scared of the LJ effect (Score:1)
Audio Tools, where did xmms go? (Score:1)
Call me insensitive... (Score:3)
But I HATE these stupid "Reader's Choice", "Editor's Choice", "Best of 19xx", and all those other "awards" that magazines (in particular, but not exclusively) dole out on an annual (or even more frequently) basis.
They always seem to miss several major contenders for the "award", and often are nothing more than a popularity contest. Even if they pretend to be based on merit, it's the opinion of Editors that get the choices in front of you to begin with.
I don't want a popularity poll. I can get that from marketing material. You know, 4-color glossies? I want more, in-depth, substantive reviews of stuff. I want to know how to make stuff work together (something you hardly ever see anyone write about). I want to hear about stuff that I might not otherwise, so I can check it out myself.
I'm not going to trust people I have no idea about as to the relative worth of a product that wins some "award". I'm going to talk to the 2 dozen friends and collegues that actually do the stuff to find out what works.
Leave the "awards" to the Entertainment folks. That's about all they're good for.
-Erik
(feeling a bit cranky and crotchety)
Re:I'm at a loss here.. (Score:1)
Yeiks (Score:1)
Sure, they offer a lot of choice, but miss out on some important stuff. And the freshmeat.org thing is just plain funny
(oh and this is meant to be *constructive* criticism
LJ must have been reading after-y2k (Score:1)
Awesome! (Score:1)
Favorites:
Distribution: tomsrtbt!
Development Tool: where's 'as'?
Shell: where's sash, or lsh?
Text Editor: where's ed? Ed is the standard!
Web Browser: lynx! Much better than arena, lynx handles tables and frames better without crashing!
Linux Book: why don't they just all read the man pages?
Web Page: Slashdot! Note that they didn't link to us: that won't save them from The Slashdot Effect!
Linux Game: Angband! Well... just because I'm addicted.
Platform: abacus! It'd have to be a pretty big one to run my turing machine, but I bet they've ported Linux to the abacus.
Mailer: telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 25
X-server: Xvfb -- it has the best interface.
Window Manager: Who needs a window manager? (see previous)
Database: cat > new.db
Backup Utility: dump
Audio Tool: cat foo.au >
Programming Language: Machine Code! Hex? Does ed have a hex mode now?
Demo: Does it use curses? Come on, now!
Disclaimer: this survey does not necessarily reflect *anyone's* opinions. I hope.
Isn't this a bit overdone? (Score:2)
"Favorite Communications Board?" Why not have "Favorite Font" and "Favorite Jumper Style" ("I love the half-height blue ones, but those full height black ones suck!!")? Most of the categories aren't substantive enough for me to even have a favorite, much less take the time to vote for it.
Oh yeah, and in most every other field of endeavour, it's common for Reader's Choice Awards to feature choices which _weren't_ available last year, and the year before that, and ... you get the gist. 95% of those products existed last year -- they could just reprint the outcome of the 1998 voting.
That is all. I'm sure this will now be moderated into oblivion by those who see all Linux-related criticism as heresy.
cheers,
mike
You know it's time to upgrade... (Score:1)
when your choice for Favorite Linux Game is BattleBall [utexas.edu]
Re:Audio Tools, where did xmms go? (Score:1)
Re:Call me insensitive... (Score:1)
thats what the "Other" catagory coupled with the "Comments" option are for.
john
Re:I'm at a loss here.. (Score:1)
Surfing the net and other cliches...
Re:I'm at a loss here.. (Score:1)
--
Uhhhh.....? (Score:1)
Is 'OR' truly an appropriate operand in this case?
Re:Vote 1 for XTux (Score:1)
Here's the homepage:
XTux [adelaide.net.au]
Re:We're not scared of the LJ effect (Score:1)
Agreed-- people only vote for what they use (Score:1)
Actually, I'd love a Reader's Choice poll where all the voters had fully evaluated the field, taking advantage of collective opinion. Unfortunately, that's not what normally happens.
Re:I'm at a loss here.. (Score:1)
The question is, should I vote for it...
Hmm, well, it'll make my descision a lot easier if about five points of negative karma disapeared, ehem, Rob Malda, ehem.
meanwhile, I'm enjoying the "comments" space. I get to tell them why i'm voting! Whoo Hoo!
Re:Uhhhh.....? (Score:1)
Re:Audio Tools, where did xmms go? (Score:1)
I thought there was more than that - there were several categories where my favourite wasn't one of the choices. I suppose they can't list everything, but for example for mailers there are a lot more around than they have on the list. Did anyone else find themselves just filling in the comment box for each category?
in response to poll choices.. (Score:1)
no, i don't use preview...