I assume you are talking about this dreadful thread.
Outside this thread the first time I heard cults mentioned was back in
the late 1990's in the context of the M$ boosters.
+ outside the mainstream - yep, especially in the 90's
+ novel belief system - yep, making bad engineering acceptable
+ perceived benefits to members - yep, better products
consistently avoided
+ headed by single "charismatic" leader - yep, though it's taken
years of whitewashing full time by several PR
firms to dress up an arrogant, condescending,
impatient, know-nothing, rich nerd into
the cult figure the press paints for us
+ isolationism - yep, the embrace, extend and extinguish strategy
to defeat standards does succeed in
cutting off the world.
+ dangerous and deceptive practices - yep, perjury, false
advertising, the works
etc.
If you look at all the bizarre politics affecting use of technology
going on at the state and national levels (US and EU) in regards to not
applying rules of commerce or engineering to just that one "company", it
fits well with how cults operate. MSFTers definitely operate quite far
outside a fact-based universe.
When dealing with technology, facts are more important than marketing dogma.
Of the BSD's, OpenBSD and NetBSD seem the most focused on nice, dry
technical material. OpenBSD has the further advantage of taking extra
precautions with supplementals tools such as licenses.
