I myself was most annoyed by the constant comparison between perl5 and perl6. There is just very very few common parts in the two projacts and picking on a release schedule or backwards compatability is not nice when you compare a project that has built up a huge history against a project that has no real production uses yet.

This is a valid point, but it wasn't that long ago that the complaint was flipped. Perl 5 seemed active and lively, while the Perl 6 project was perceived as doomed by most of those who bothered thinking about it at all. Back then we were told by Perl 6 defenders that it was unfair to compare a language with a large dedicated user base to a language which was still being designed - and only by a handful of people at that.

Now Rakudo & Parrot are presenting regular public releases while Perl 5 is not. Now we're told by Perl 5 defenders that it's unfair to compare a language with huge backward compatibility concerns to a language which has not seen widespread use in a production environment.

Both claims were valid, in the sense that it's unfair to compare two different languages with two different cultures. We do it anyways. We can't help it - it's in our nature. I was one of the people complaining about the lack of a Perl 6 in the early 2000's. Now it's 2009 and I'm one of the people complaining about the lack of Perl 5 updates. Not the only person complaining, and far from the loudest. I am one of the complainers, though.

I complain because I love Perl in whatever form it takes and want to see more of it. I want to see Perl excel. I want to see 5.10.1 and 5.12.0 and beyond. I think my colleagues should be excited about Rakudo and Parrot and Perl 5 and Moose and Catalyst, instead of staring at me blankly and saying that the default installed Perl 5 is good enough for the system scripting tasks they've relegated it to.

But yeah, I realize that things aren't going to get better just because I complain. Most of the complainers - and there are many, not just one against a monolithic community - also contribute something of value to the Perl world. I'll try a little harder to do the same.