Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

holy wars
     
        [{Usenet}, but may predate it] {flame war}s 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}]