It might be a scared cow, but at least deservedly so. There is imho a difference between accidental incompetence (debatable, even) and active malice. Microsoft has done a lot of the latter so gets bashed more, nor surprise there.

"You keep using that word..." or term in this case.

There are only 2 words in this term, and neither one even slightly applies.

A sacred cow is called a sacred cow because there is no reason for it to be sacred.

Linux is perfectly subject to criticism, and so not at all sacred.

Linux has earned a stunning amount of respect and gratitude by actually providing stunning utility and quality. IE, it's not just a random object like a cow that everyone decided to worship for no reason.

Spoken as a freebsd user who has plenty of critiques of the entire linux ecosystem.