Is the specific person important to the point?
Edit to replies: Both the context and the employer were in the original post. Blasting the actual GitHub issue when it's clear the author specifically tried to avoid that is awful behavior too.
Edit to replies: Both the context and the employer were in the original post. Blasting the actual GitHub issue when it's clear the author specifically tried to avoid that is awful behavior too.
It's definitely relevant.
It's pretty shocking that someone in the industry so long thinks that OSS maintainers owe him anything though, or that he didn't think to simply fork his own version - he must know this is an option. He's probably read the MIT license at some point in his career - has he never stopped to think about what to provide something 'as-is' means? His position suggests that he has the resources available to do a lot of things that were far less embarrassing than asking someone who owes him nothing to make his job easier.
From all the RedHat news lately it seems to be the other way around. Not unexpected as that's usually how acquisitions go.
IMHO, asking for the next release date is ok. He even added sorta justification as to "why" he asked it.
Proposing consultancy services is also ok, just like answering "we don't have a release date" would also be ok.
But the email... Can't choose between this guy thinks he is "The Guy Working At IBM", or he sucks at communicating.