[Gnu-arch-users] Inclusion of Bzr into the GNU system

[deadlyhead]

I've been sitting on this for a long time, but it's been bothering me a 
bit and I need to get some others' perspectives on it.

I'm a fan of GNU Arch.  Seriously.  I'm not a major software author at 
all, but I do have need of a revision control system, and of all that 
I've used, GNU Arch is the one that I really feel fits how I work.  The 
fact that it is distributed, that it uses forward patching, that it has 
a sane, usable interface and more make it ideally suited to my needs.  
Most of all, it's a GNU project, and thus I am ensured that in using it 
I retain my freedom.

The fact that GNU Arch has a smaller user base than some revision 
systems has always been a bit of a downer to me, but has not deterred my 
use of it in my own projects.  When Bazaar forked, then rewrote, GNU 
Arch, I was fairly unimpressed, because potential users of Arch were 
then pulled over to Bzr.  I can't fault either the Bazaar team nor the 
users; this is a freedom protected by free software.  I would have 
preferred to see those same efforts make there way into GNU Arch (though 
I have read of the reasons why they weren't), but what really galls me 
is the means of developing Bazaar and the subsequent product.

Bazaar is written in Python.  I've used Python, and though I personally 
don't prefer it (I'm a Guile user), I see its merits and why so many 
programmers are drawn to it.  But Python, while ostensibly free 
software, has a rather weak license and in the past its community has 
shown a bit of hostility toward maintaining the Four Freedoms.  This 
greatly troubles me for a project that has been accepted as part of the 
GNU system.  I would like to have seen the deliberations over accepting 
Bazaar as a GNU project and know whether this issue was brought up.

My personal wish would be to see the continued development of GNU Arch 
(1.x or 2, either works) as a GNU project.  I feel that these programs 
are much more in line with GNU philosophy and thus a better choice for 
the system.  I realize that the ``best'' way to go about this is to take 
an active role in the development of either piece of software, and I'd 
love to, though I feel barely confident in my abilities to do the 
software justice.  (I'm a passable C programmer at best.  Along with 
being an avid Guile user, my interests lie squarely with Ada programming 
and GNAT.  Talk about marginalizing my own project acceptance!)  I feel 
that it would be worthwhile to use all GNU-supported languages for GNU 
projects, and GNU Arch extended with Guile would be a worthy showpiece 
for GNU's extension language as well.  Maybe I'm just a fanboy, but 
using GNU's tools when working on a GNU project seems _right_ in so many 
ways.

This is just my perspective.  I'd like to see what others have to say 
for the inclusion of Bazaar as a GNU project, how that sits with the GNU 
Arch community, its benefits and detriments, and what that means for the 
future of Arch.  I'm inclined to get involved with Arch if it's active 
in any way still (but don't think I could push start it if it's 
stalled),  but due to my reservations with Bazaar, involvement in it, 
let alone use of it, is unlikely.  (It doesn't even work on my Debian 
box!  WTFpython!?)

Thanks for reading.

-- deadlyhead