Computer illiterate people...

[Nowhere]

We all know them. Sometimes they even think they know a lot. But I suppose not often they threaten you with FBI...

Here, have a lough...that, and I'd like to contribute to the effort of making sure that search for Jerry A. Taylor, City manager of Tuttle Oklahoma will show relevant page...

Shorter versions:
Jerry A. Taylor, City manager of Tuttle Oklahoma
Jerry A. Taylor, City manager of Tuttle Oklahoma

[Dilitante1]

someones tax dollars hard at work

gotta love "civil" servants

[az]

The scandal is not that he is computer illiterate, but his behaviour and that he even blamed the software firm afterwards.

[Nowhere]

Yeah, the point is that he's a PHB, perhaps not made very clear by me...

[Jessterw]

There's a town called Tuttle in Oklahoma? Learn something new everyday, and I live in the state...

*ahem*

I've run into many a people who get so worked up over something that they refuse to listen to reason and the indignation present in some of the replies from CentOS would have only served to further this sort of agitation. It's typical of developers like that of CentOS to respond in such a way and really it's not their fault per se, you just have to learn to see people like this Mr. Taylor for what they are at first contact.

The correct response would have been a lengthy one that detailed everything and provided links. Without any indignation of course. Because simply, incidents like this, though maybe not to this extent, will occur more and more. Not to pick on (F)OSS developers, but they definitely need to learn better customer relations and quite throwing the "it's free so f* off" references into everything (if you read the actual correspondences then you'll see what I mean).

Still, not hard to get irritated when someone like Mr. Taylor comes a knocking and it's good to see the developer finally put forth the sort of response that was needed.

[Nowhere]

OTOH in first mail he accused them of braking the law and threatened with "officials"...

BTW, I really wonder what would be MS response to such mails...

[cjolley]

There's a town called Tuttle in Oklahoma? Learn something new everyday, and I live in the state...

I've been there many times.
"Town" might make it sound bigger than it is.

Why does it always have to be Oklahoma? Sigh...

[az]

JW, IMHO it was very nice of them to respond helpfully at all, seeing as he wasn't even a customer and started all this in a very unreasonable manner.

[Jon P. Inghram]

I see a "Tuttle Okl" in there, but it's getting eaten. By some... Linux or something.

[Mehen]

"I am computer literate! I have 22 years in computer systems engineering and operation."

Punch cards?

[cjolley]

Come on guys.
Cut it out.
I have to live here... sigh...

[Mehen]

How do you know that the "toothbrush" was invented in Oklahoma?

Because if it was invented anywhere else it would have been called a "teethbrush!"

sorry... I just heard that one a little while ago, couldn't resist

[Jessterw]

JW, IMHO it was very nice of them to respond helpfully at all, seeing as he wasn't even a customer and started all this in a very unreasonable manner.

I don't necessarily disagree; however, the initial response wasn't exactly helpful in the way it needed to be. The initial response was actually tinged with, as I said before, indignation.

"I feel sorry for your city" was quite apparently a barb in reference to the man's position.

"We hope you are happy with it, since we produced it for free and you are able to use it without paying us ... and are even threatening to have us arrested for providing to you free of charge." - Come on. There was no need for that sort of retort. As I said, it's not exactly CentOS' fault as they likely have no background in dealing with customers (whether they truly are or not), but a knee jerk response like that doesn't look good. Goes back to my comment about stopping with the "it's free" line that (F)OSS developers are so fond of.

I'm in no way condoning the behaviour of the guy from Tuttle. He's missing a few reasoning skills that most people are born with. As I said though, he's the sort that needs to be defused quickly, lest things drag on as they did. Unreasonable "customers" happen and you've got to learn to deal with them if you're going to offer a product. True he wasn't actually a customer, but management types often are confused about who offers what and more often than not they won't ask because they don't want to appear ill informed.

We all know this isn't the first time this has happened to a number of other companies. We may never hear about it, but it happens. Which leads us to the reason why we know about it... the public posting of it on CentOS' forums by a team member. Nice. Amusing to read I grant them that, but I wouldn't ever trust doing business with this group because of that.

[Jessterw]

How do you know that the "toothbrush" was invented in Oklahoma?

Because if it was invented anywhere else it would have been called a "teethbrush!"

sorry... I just heard that one a little while ago, couldn't resist

I think they got the states mixed up in that one. Should be Arkansas or West Virginia

[cjolley]

Yes, it was the shopping cart and the parking meter that were invented here. Sigh...