Re: "people usually work on what they are interested in"
Inkscape dev here. Your summise is somewhat correct, although it lacks some of the cause and effect inherent in the motivations of not just developers but all the support volunteers. For example, I'm a Free Software zealot, my whole bag is providing Free Desktops with a vector editor that's powerful, I don't care what Adobe is doing (except to pinch ideas) because Illustrator doesn't run on Linux. BUT other developers, some care about access for all users (support windows and mac because it's just that all users should have access) or care about features (they ARE cool to make).
But what I think is different and what we're trying to make different is how we do community. No matter how you are motivated to make Inkscape the thing better, the core consensus around the way in which the community is built is critical. Not having a difference between developer and non-developer contributors for example, inviting and mentoring anyone who wants to help in any role, even some of the boring ones like docs, or the gross ones like posting to facebook. Respect for contributors, patience for users and fair rules about where we should and shouldn't split out time between our pet desires and our shared responsibility borne from shared and growing relationships.
(We'll be doing a virtual hackfest to talk about features in 1.1 btw, should be fun to see all my friend's faces over that weekend)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
