That sucks, and I’m sorry you had that experience. To provide a viewpoint for your short-circuit, the FOSS software is a tool, yes, but the FOSS movement is politics and philosophy. To them (us, but I like to hope I’m less of a dink) software made unethically is similar to advocating for socialism or unions as a means of empowering the people against forces that would oppress them. For some people, using proprietary software might be like using products made by slave labour.

Some people who are more puritanical than myself might refuse to use anything that they can’t use freely, the equivalent of you obstaining from using a laptop at all if Linux doesn’t work for you. I think most people, myself included, would consider that extreme, but I bet you’ve heard from those extremists.

None of this is meant to excuse the people who’ve been crap to you, you should do whatever you need to. I’m just trying to explain why people get so worked up about it compared to a screwdriver. Or a hammer, say. A hammer and a sickle, even…

😉