Can someone compare the level of hate he's describing here with what the average person has to deal with in the enterprise? Maybe it's not bullying, but it's still a high level of stress. Especially on production support rotation.
Also, in companies that are bigger than startups, developers don't have to deal directly with customers that often. We have customer support departments who are trained to talk nicely to demanding customers.
Executives breathing down your neck demanding answers and things "just work".
I get being paid, and I get assholes in general. I'm just saying from a pure mentality standpoint, it's not 100% opposite.
A customer who has paid a lot of money for a software license and a support contract has the right to demand that you fix it if it doesn't work. They're not being a bully; they're just demanding what they've paid for. They have a right to threaten to take their business elsewhere, and to escalate the issue to your boss if you aren't being helpful. As a developer I need to understand that this customer is paying my salary, and their business may be losing money because of a bug that's my fault. I should have some empathy for their distress.
However, someone who has paid nothing for open source software has no right to the developer's time. They're trying to get something they're not entitled to by bullying a developer. The developer should have no problem telling the user to fuck off.
So it seems to me that in these two situations, both the user and the developer are in very different mental stances.
The concept of a troll inside of the enterprise is more or less unheard of compared to what a popular piece of OSS can get