The problem is not that people don't care, but that people DO care. A lot. The slightest mention of Linux on GDNet tends to turn usually intelligent and helpful people into rabid OS fanboys. (Which is curious, since the usual state of affairs is that Linux people make up the majority of the rabid fanboys.)

Not really; people have mentioned Linux or Apple before now without it going off into flames. The problems happen depending on tone and content of posts; often things break into flames when someone states that X > Y REGARDLESS of context.

Saying "I prefer X because of Z' isn't going to result in a flame war, it might result in a debate where people point out the alternatives or flaws in reasoning but the statement on its own isn't going to cause it. Saying "I prefer X because of Z therefore everyone who uses Y is wrong." (either implied or otherwise stated) and applying it in a blanket situation without context IS going to result in a flamewar if only because one group point out cases where that doesn't hold true and the other [person|group] refuse to see this point.

Which brings us back to this thread where the OP's tone in the first is along the same lines; tried windows, it was broken and thus was implied that because his wife liked it those of us who don't use it are somehow 'wrong' for using Win7 which he seems to think is cluttered etc. which smacks of classic Linux User Superiority which many people (probably on both sides of the fence) are pretty sick of.

Now, it turns out this wasn't the OPs intent, his intent seemed to be that he wanted to say why he loves his wife and find out why others love theirs; however as this wasn't implied in the thread in any way (no, the thread title does not imply he wanted other feedback to the same effect) it is why it went the way it did. If he had included that and maybe dropped some of the pointless bashing, which lets face it EVERY OS has reasons to 'bash' on them which are frankly trival and more often than not personal 'issues' more than technical ones, we wouldn't be here now.

Reasoned debate is possible, right up until one of the parties throws reason out the window.

Which brings us back to this thread where the OP's tone in the first is along the same lines; tried windows, it was broken and thus was implied that because his wife liked it those of us who don't use it are somehow 'wrong' for using Win7 which he seems to think is cluttered etc. which smacks of classic Linux User Superiority which many people (probably on both sides of the fence) are pretty sick of.

OP basically says "my wife liked Windows before, but she didn't like W7 and I didn't either for reasons X, Y and Z, so now we use Ubuntu and that's awesome" - Linux User Superiority? Give me a break! Calling his post "pointless bashing" is just lame; if someone had said that Ubuntu is slow, clunky and has an inferior way of managing software, I think you'd have called that relevant criticism rather than "pointless bashing."

While many Linux users - especially new Ubuntu converts - tend to be quite vocal and extremely annoying about their OS of choice, claiming that there is no anti-Linux bias in the lounge is ridiculous.