Is the OSS Model Failing? (thru Slashdot)
"Instead of contributing to existing applications lacking a particular feature or with a certain bug, we're getting hundreds of coders starting brand new projects that differ only slightly from existing ones. I'm beginning to think that this is something like the "first post" syndrome."

People commented mainly against this argument, pointing that developers started similar projects for fun or learning. Some duplication and competition doesn't hurt, but I still think we waste energy on too much duplication and not enough original content. What's wrong with doing yet another text editor is that there are problems that lack a proper software solution, and text editing is not one of them. People have the perfect right not to be productive community-wise speaking, as long as they don't fool themselves through lack of research or egotic delusion.