Conflict is good. (Sometimes)

I wonder how many people are going to read this article and be reminded of Paul and Barnabas

Flame Wars, Forks and Freedom - OSNews.com

In the news media, it is generally shown that flame wars and forks are detrimental to the growth of FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) But if we see the history of FOSS, both flame wars and forks have played a crucial role in determining both growth and direction of important projects. There are also arguments that this leads to fragmentation and marginalization. There is some truth in these arguments but there are a lot of benefits which are often overlooked.