visitor@linuxweenie:~$ tail -f /var/log/flames.log
Computing's legendary debates, preserved behind museum glass like particularly spicy fossils. We exhibit the arguments — never the arguers. Please do not tap the glass. The glass is a metaphor. The arguments are eternal.
vi versus emacs: the oldest holy war in computing, fought with
keybindings instead of swords. One side edits at the speed of thought with two hands on the
home row; the other side has an entire operating system that happens to edit text.
Generations have been raised on this conflict. Nobody has ever won. Everybody has strong
feelings about :wq.
Neutral ground: our friends on the neutral campus grounds host the interactive exhibit — the vi vs emacs exhibit at blinkenlights.com — where both factions may observe each other peacefully through reinforced glass.
When the init system grew up into a full system manager, the community responded the way it responds to everything: with fourteen competing philosophies, strongly worded essays, and forks named after the thing they forked. Boot times dropped. Thread lengths grew.
Museum policy: we take no position. We sell popcorn (conceptually — the gift shop is still pre-launch).
A debate of such purity it has no stakes and infinite energy. One side hears the music of semantic indentation; the other hears the music of "it lines up on every screen." Both sides compile. Neither side will ever concede. The museum's own source code uses tabs, and the museum's curator uses spaces, and they have agreed never to look at each other's diffs.
nano is the editor for people who opened a config file, made the change, and
left — no modal philosophy, no 400-page manual, just Ctrl+O, Enter,
Ctrl+X, gone. Veterans smirk. Newcomers survive. The exhibit includes a
preserved ^O artifact, still warm.
The museum's official stance: the best editor is the one that gets you back to dinner.
(The Unix Wing respectfully disagrees and has opinions
about ed. We love them anyway.)
Every war in this gallery is presented as a phenomenon: the debates, the memes, the beautiful absurdity of humans caring this much about text. No humans were harmed beyond their uptime. If you feel the urge to start a new flame war on your way out, please do so in the parking lot, quietly, and cite your sources.
> Retreat to the Distro Halls
> Cool off at the gift-shop shelf