[chrislaco]

Yes and no. Yes, the problem is heightened by people specifying version patterns when they probably don't have to.

However, when you get a bundle install conflict error about json, one gem needing a higher version, and one needing a lower version... adding json to _my_ Gemfile/gemspec to fix it when I'm not using json directly is also not the right answer. Sometimes, even that doesn't work at all.

[lobster_johnson]

Still not Bundler's fault -- it can't install both versions. At any rate, versioning is a hard problem.

[jeltz]

Even if you could install both, it would not fix anything since only one version can be loaded.