[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]