[MPlayer-users] Uoti nonsense, and my parting words

[Stroller]

On 20 May 2010, at 10:18, RC wrote:

> On Wed, 19 May 2010 08:19:33 +0300
> Uoti Urpala <uoti.urpala at pp1.inet.fi> wrote:
>
>> It's just not possible to create a competitive version based on svn
>> without wasting a lot of effort.
>
> It wouldn't be wasted at all, as far more people would be able to use
> it, and more would work on.

Why so?

Anyone can use a git repository, they just check out from their  
instead of SVN.

git is actually better for collaboration, as one can create an account  
at GitHub (or one's own server) make the changes and then Uoti, you,  
me or anyone can then get the changes from there. They can easily be  
merged into the "official git repository" or, if the official  
maintainer doesn't like them, it's no problem for changes to be  
tracked from the official repository to the fork. git was specifically  
designed to facilitate this.

If Uoti's version ultimately proves better, then users and distro  
maintainers will eventually start using it. It doesn't benefit the  
community having two incompatible version trackers, but I don't see  
that SVN is in any way inherently "better", and in many ways it is  
inherently worse.

SVN requires approval before a 3rd-party can make commits; this  
maintains the "purity" of the repository, but git makes it easier for  
*everyone* if I come out of nowhere and produce some really great  
improvements which I publish that way. Anyone can easily test my  
version, and they can easily be added to the official repo.

Stroller.