Questions which seemingly cannot be raised without touching off
holy wars, such as “What is the best operating
system (or editor, language, architecture, shell, mail reader, news
reader)?”, “What about that Heinlein guy, eh?”,
“What should we add to the new Jargon File?” See
holy wars; see also theology,
bigot, and compare
rathole.
This term is a prime example of
ha ha only serious. People actually develop the most amazing and
religiously intense attachments to their tools, even when the tools are
intangible. The most constructive thing one can do when one stumbles into
the crossfire is mumble Get a life! and leave
— unless, of course, one's own unassailably
rational and obviously correct choices are being slammed.
