I think these kinds of disparaging remarks about people don't belong in a civil discussion. If you feel that the opinion isn't worth being discussed, you can just not comment.
A guy makes a huge claim based on his very limited view of the market (while insulting everybody). I think I am in my full right to call him out.
The biggest problem with discourse is that we think we know what the other person is thinking.
The original blog is spewing some pretty stereotypical bullshit you'd expect from some teenager seriously engaged in a which OS or text editor is better holy war.
That's an interesting position. Shouldn't we strive to have a civil discussion despite whatever incivility may have sparked it? Is any discussion irrevocably tainted?
I reserve the right to decide that for myself on a case-by-case basis.
And FWIW, I don't think lecturing someone else about their civility is a civil thing to do.
I don't think the comments were all that unreasonable considering that their subject (Rob Ashton) said:
"It'll not happen because as long as you're working
on a platform that is primarily used by derpy
enterprise shops, you will continually be held back
because those derpy enteprise shops are continually be
held back by the derpy enterprise developers that work in
the derpy enterprise shops."
Also, I get this feeling that the original poster (Rob) is the kind of guy who has zero experience outside a few web frameworks. The kind of guy that barely even knows that desktop, server and embedded exist.