Here we go again with what I am calling the Linux Pissing Contest. See, years ago it was browser wars, then it was desktop wars, now it is contributor wars. All are useless, I don’t care how you break them down. Today, I read a post on Linux Journal titled, Who Contributes the Most to LibreOffice?.

The answer is simple, WHO CARES. First and foremost, I have nothing against the author. I am just tired of these pissing contests. First it was who contributes the most to the kernel. And then you had a bunch of immature people attacking this distribution and that distribution. Why write stuff like this? What does it prove? Who does it help? What are you all trying to prove? Thus far, everyone of these pissing contests have been about quantity and nothing about quality.

If you are one of those who strive to have the most commits for a project because you think it is cool, well then this is for you:

UPDATE: This is for a little clarification. The post that LJ did is exactly the type of post(s) that lead to the entire Kernel commit bullcrap that went on 2 years ago. The same thing will happen with this one, and if you follow other Linux or Open Source news things, they are already picking up on it and each one points out the same exact thing. Sure, 133 new contributors, but who are they? Do they all work for Novell or Red Hat, because that is who LJ really focused on in terms on names and the amount. Then LJ brought up Canonical, and then added the, “They contributed the Human theme and a later fix…” They don’t see what the 133 new contributors committed, or what Novell or Red Hat committed. It is just another cheap stab, and this is what kicks off the pissing contests.

I should probably also make it clear that I am not a fanboy who is enraged, I am not crazy about Canonical either. I use Kubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, and Arch on all of my machines, so I am not sticking up for anyone here. I am just trying to point out that these pissing contests that kick off are what make us look like a joke to the “mainstream“.