We know that Java must be pretty good, because it is the cool, new
programming language. Or is it? If you look at the world of
programming languages from a distance, it looks like Java is the
latest thing. (From far enough away, all you can see is the large,
flashing billboard paid for by Sun.) But if you look at this world up
close, you find that there are degrees of coolness. Within the hacker
subculture, there is another language called Perl that is considered a
lot cooler than Java. Slashdot, for example, is generated by Perl. I
don’t think you would find those guys using Java Server Pages. But
there is another, newer language, called Python, whose users tend to
look down on Perl, and another called Ruby that some see as the heir
apparent of Python.
– Paul Graham, Hackers and Painters, p. 183
He’s right.