Well, end-user support is hard, there's no way around it. KDE has encountered its share of flamewars and even banned developers as well, though we normally see

Well, end-user support is hard, there's no way around it. KDE has encountered its share of flamewars and even banned developers as well, though we normally seem to default to near the opposite end of the spectrum where we string a problem along and let it fester until finally someone will make the decision to utilize le banhammer. This has negative effects on our developer pool. After the last major crisis a couple of years ago we formed a "Community Working Group", the team behind which seems to have done a good job of helping resolve issues behind-the-scenes before they become HN and /. headlines. But to answer your question it has nothing to do with FOSS in particular, and everything to do with customer support. I used to work retail and that was way worse, at least here I can add someone to my killfile.