Sure, someone else may benefit from it if it's accepted into the main project tree, but I'm just making it do what I want it to do. Sometimes, we do it for our own prestige and the respect of our peers. Whether you're prepared to admit it or not, seeing your name in the credits file gives you a good feeling. It takes a great deal of effort to retain impartiality when you're dealing with a complete pain in the ass. You can set your own work load, schedules and goals.
Nobody can force the pace of development or release.
Nobody tells you what you have to support, or what features you have to add. That 's the freedom you need to keep. Perception and Reality I'll let you into two little secrets here. The first one is that, no matter what the conspiracy theorists think, very little dirty dealing actually does go on when companies employ free software hackers. The problem is mainly a matter of perception.