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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>holy wars</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../H.html" title="H"/><link rel="previous" href="holy-penguin-pee.html" title="holy penguin pee"/><link rel="next" href="home-box.html" title="home box"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">holy wars</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="holy-penguin-pee.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">H</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="home-box.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="holy-wars"/><dt xmlns="" id="holy-wars"><b>holy wars</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from <a href="../U/Usenet.html"><i class="glossterm">Usenet</i></a>, but may predate it; common]
<span class="grammar">n.</span> <a href="../F/flame-war.html"><i class="glossterm">flame war</i></a>s
over <a href="../R/religious-issues.html"><i class="glossterm">religious issues</i></a>. The paper by Danny Cohen
that popularized the terms <a href="../B/big-endian.html"><i class="glossterm">big-endian</i></a> and
<a href="../L/little-endian.html"><i class="glossterm">little-endian</i></a> in connection with the
LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled <i class="citetitle">On Holy Wars and a
Plea for Peace</i>.</p><p>Great holy wars of the past have included <a href="../I/ITS.html"><i class="glossterm">ITS</i></a>
vs.: <a href="../U/Unix.html"><i class="glossterm">Unix</i></a>, <a href="../U/Unix.html"><i class="glossterm">Unix</i></a> vs.:
<a href="../V/VMS.html"><i class="glossterm">VMS</i></a>, <a href="../B/BSD.html"><i class="glossterm">BSD</i></a> Unix vs.: System V,
<a href="../C/C.html"><i class="glossterm">C</i></a> vs.: <a href="../P/Pascal.html"><i class="glossterm">Pascal</i></a>,
<a href="../C/C.html"><i class="glossterm">C</i></a> vs.: FORTRAN, etc. In the year 2003, popular
favorites of the day are KDE vs, GNOME, vim vs. elvis, Linux
vs. [Free|Net|Open]BSD. Hardy perennials include
<a href="../E/EMACS.html"><i class="glossterm">EMACS</i></a> vs.: <a href="../V/vi.html"><i class="glossterm">vi</i></a>, 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 <a href="../T/theology.html"><i class="glossterm">theology</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="holy-penguin-pee.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../H.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="home-box.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">holy penguin pee </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> home box</td></tr></table></div></body></html>