How the FlightGear project works: Difference between revisions

As FlightGear is becoming increasingly popular each year, we've been seeing a number of controversial discussions regarding the inner workings of the FlightGear project recently. Meanwhile, it is a well-known fact among long-time contributors that the FlightGear development model may seem irritating at first and it is known to cause some confusions or even frustration among new contributors who may already have experience contributing in other flight sim communities or even other OSS software.  

So here's a collection of responses intended to clarify why things are set up this way. People interested in getting involved in the FlightGear community and contributing in one way or another, are encouraged to read this and understand how FlightGear has been able to be successful despite the fact that it does not have any commercial backing or a really structured development model.