This is an example of a major downfall with free software: a developer decides he needs a feature so he implements it without taking any effort to see what has been done before – and more importantly, why.

It leads to the project sprouting thousands of new features while nothing achieves the polish and completeness of the original idea because the developer moved on to something newer and shinier.

I can't find the original blog post where I read the idea, but I did find one on Coding Horror: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/01/the-magpie-develope...

The Linux kernel solves this by having Linus, who has the long term perspective and the commitment to keep the project moving forward. I'm not claiming he's perfect, just that having him is the correct solution to the problem. Obviously here is someone who thinks the 3.9 kernel has a new feature he needs all the while ignoring past socket work.