[W/K] :: holy wars

  holy wars n. [from Usenet, but may predate it; common] n. flame
     wars over religious issues. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized
     the terms big-endian and little-endian in connection with the
     LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled "On Holy Wars and a Plea
     for Peace".
  
     Great holy wars of the past have included {ITS vs. {Unix},
     {Unix vs. VMS, BSD Unix vs. System V, C vs. {Pascal}, C vs.
     FORTRAN, etc. In the year 2000, popular favorites of the day are KDE vs,
     GNOME, vim vs. elvis, Linux vs. [Free|Net|Open]BSD. Hardy perennials
     include EMACS vs. vi, my personal computer vs. everyone else's
     personal computer, ad nauseam. The characteristic that distinguishes
     holy wars from normal technical disputes is that in a holy war most of
     the participants spend their time trying to pass off personal value
     choices and cultural attachments as objective technical evaluations.
     This happens precisely because in a true holy war, the actual
     substantive differences between the sides are relatively minor. See also
     theology.
  
  

  holy wars
       
          [{Usenet, but may predate it] flame wars over religious
          issues.  The paper by Danny Cohen that popularised the terms
          big-endian and little-endian was entitled "On Holy Wars
          and a Plea for Peace".  Other perennial Holy Wars have
          included Emacs vs. vi, my personal computer vs. everyone
          else's personal computer, ITS vs. Unix, Unix vs. VMS,
          BSD Unix vs. USG Unix, C vs. Pascal, C vs. Fortran,
          etc., ad nauseam.  The characteristic that distinguishes holy
          wars from normal technical disputes is that in a holy wars
          most of the participants spend their time trying to pass off
          personal value choices and cultural attachments as objective
          technical evaluations.  See also theology.
       
          [{Jargon File]