Seeing the huge number of competing open source projects in basically every programming language raises some questions.

Primarily is it good for us?

Competition certainly drives innovation forward, but having multiple efforts that only slightly differ from each other is probably more of a waste of time and energy.

So why do so many people create libraries and end-user applications that are so similar to other solutions? Why are they not collaborating to create a better tool for both people?

Just one example, on this site you can find 351 Static Site Generators. Many programming languages having 7-8 different implementations.

• Does this happen because it is easier to start a new project than to contribute to an existing one?
• Is it because, despite going on about "the community", in reality we prefer to work alone rather than cooperate?