Confessions of a Mozillian
David Hyatt is involved in the devlopment of the Mozilla browser. He discusses his "frustration with the development of the Mozilla user interface" and proposes some product changes to mitigate the issues. Aspects of his story sound similar to may other software projects, but what's different are the complications that open source development can bring: "there's the problem of Mozilla's perpetuated egalitarianism at the module owner level and at the contributor level. Everyone is leveled out, leaving the product with no clear direction or vision."

Related posts:
Linux needs focus not whiners where I said:
"The reason Linux is floundering, if at all, is that there is no unified Linux vision. There is no strategy, no marketing -- not even a targeted market segment. Who is leading product development for Linux? Who has identified and profiled the target users and their needs? Can anyone tell me, even in general terms, who Linux is designed for? So much Open Source development relies on the concept of evolution -- but evolution takes too long. In business, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there".