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When I saw this post I was wondering what bazaar was. then it took me a few seconds to google and figure out that GNU Bazaar is a version control system. Why do

When I saw this post I was wondering what bazaar was. then it took me a few seconds to google and figure out that GNU Bazaar is a version control system. Why don't they use git? Anything good with bazaar? EDIT: Just saw the Bazaar site. Even MySQL and Ubuntu uses them. http://bazaar.canonical.com/ http://bazaar.canonical.com/

zaphar 17y ago
Actually, bazaar has to be the most difficult and confusing VCS to use out of all the options available. Git and HG are much saner options to use.
- pohl 17y ago
  I just heard about bazaar. Could you elaborate? It feels very mercurial-esque at first blush, and it would be nice to know what to look out for.
  - zaphar 17y ago
    Strange I could have sworn I replied to this yesterday but obviously I didn't. Bazaar is a fork of arch. The last time i truly looked at it it was only recently forked from arch. So you experience may vary. At that time Bazaar was dog slow. Depending on who I ask it is either no longer slow or it's still slow just not as slow. Since Git and HG both suite my needs perfectly I've never bothered to check myself. Bazaar uses multiple repository and wire formats none of which are completely compatible with each other. For an application whose focus is distributed collaboration this seems very much wrong. It also from what I've heard is fragile when it comes to interrupted writes. I've had stories of folks losing the whole repository because of this. This is hearsay though so you can take it or leave it. The sense I get is that both Git and Hg have a well exposed and understandable theory of operation while Bazaar does not seem to have this and instead just gives you a set of best practices. Again this is subjective and you may very well find that its quite useable and understandable.
    - pohl 17y ago
      Thank you, that's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping you would share. I wonder if you may be someone who used the software that was once also called "Bazaar" but has since been renamed to Baz. It appears that the current incarnation of Bazaar did not so much start out as a fork of arch, but as a test-bed for features that would eventually make it back into Baz (which did start out as a fork of arch). Apparently everybody decided to just ditch the old codebase and work on the new one instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_(software)#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_(software)#History I like what I saw from looking yesterday. I especially like how it handles renames and how it treats directories as first-class objects in the repository. I'm also drawn to their concept of "bound branches", which I suspect would be essential in one particular instance of SVN that I'm keen to replace with something distributed but not totally anarchistic. I think I'm going to keep Mercurial for my own personal use, for the sole reason that you can get a free private repository at bitbucket.org, but not at launchpad.net or GitHub. If launchpad were to offer the same, that would probably tip the balance towards Bazaar for me.
algorias 17y ago
We use launchpad (i.e. bzr) for an open source project. It works and it does what you'd expect it to. Then again, it is a small project with simple needs.
pohl 17y ago
Bazaar caught me by surprise, too. I've been enjoying the DVCS world lately, having finally decided that I had outgrown SVN. Mercurial grabbed me more than Git did. My first experience with Mercurial was very natural. Everything that I tried worked the first time in the way I first tried to do it. Git left me fumbling about and googling for answers, but I was able to acclimate quickly. Ultimately, I decided that I would need to use both: Mercurial for my own tastes, and Git just because it's the dominant player. Bazaar looks like a strong competitor, even for Mercurial, in terms of usability.

zaphar 17y ago

Actually, bazaar has to be the most difficult and confusing VCS to use out of all the options available. Git and HG are much saner options to use.

pohl 17y ago
I just heard about bazaar. Could you elaborate? It feels very mercurial-esque at first blush, and it would be nice to know what to look out for.
- zaphar 17y ago
  Strange I could have sworn I replied to this yesterday but obviously I didn't. Bazaar is a fork of arch. The last time i truly looked at it it was only recently forked from arch. So you experience may vary. At that time Bazaar was dog slow. Depending on who I ask it is either no longer slow or it's still slow just not as slow. Since Git and HG both suite my needs perfectly I've never bothered to check myself. Bazaar uses multiple repository and wire formats none of which are completely compatible with each other. For an application whose focus is distributed collaboration this seems very much wrong. It also from what I've heard is fragile when it comes to interrupted writes. I've had stories of folks losing the whole repository because of this. This is hearsay though so you can take it or leave it. The sense I get is that both Git and Hg have a well exposed and understandable theory of operation while Bazaar does not seem to have this and instead just gives you a set of best practices. Again this is subjective and you may very well find that its quite useable and understandable.
  - pohl 17y ago
    Thank you, that's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping you would share. I wonder if you may be someone who used the software that was once also called "Bazaar" but has since been renamed to Baz. It appears that the current incarnation of Bazaar did not so much start out as a fork of arch, but as a test-bed for features that would eventually make it back into Baz (which did start out as a fork of arch). Apparently everybody decided to just ditch the old codebase and work on the new one instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_(software)#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar_(software)#History I like what I saw from looking yesterday. I especially like how it handles renames and how it treats directories as first-class objects in the repository. I'm also drawn to their concept of "bound branches", which I suspect would be essential in one particular instance of SVN that I'm keen to replace with something distributed but not totally anarchistic. I think I'm going to keep Mercurial for my own personal use, for the sole reason that you can get a free private repository at bitbucket.org, but not at launchpad.net or GitHub. If launchpad were to offer the same, that would probably tip the balance towards Bazaar for me.

algorias 17y ago

We use launchpad (i.e. bzr) for an open source project. It works and it does what you'd expect it to. Then again, it is a small project with simple needs.

pohl 17y ago

Bazaar caught me by surprise, too. I've been enjoying the DVCS world lately, having finally decided that I had outgrown SVN. Mercurial grabbed me more than Git did. My first experience with Mercurial was very natural. Everything that I tried worked the first time in the way I first tried to do it. Git left me fumbling about and googling for answers, but I was able to acclimate quickly. Ultimately, I decided that I would need to use both: Mercurial for my own tastes, and Git just because it's the dominant player. Bazaar looks like a strong competitor, even for Mercurial, in terms of usability.