Well, you can specify which Java to compile against (and if the target machine didn't have the right Java, you were SOL anyway). The network resources is a good

Well, you can specify which Java to compile against (and if the target machine didn't have the right Java, you were SOL anyway). The network resources is a good point, but I'd rather Maven try to go and get a dependency and get it 90% of the time than worry about making my users go and do it, or, worse, considering packaging other libraries along with my own source code. That's not cool. I am confused about your comment about defunct project dependencies. My understanding was the Maven repos didn't delete anything, so if you can get the project, you can get its dependencies. I've never come across a Maven project that couldn't find its dependencies. Maven also wants to write to ~/.m2/ by default, so your users shouldn't have a permission problem. It sounds to me that you are just scared about Maven doing all this other stuff that you never told it to do, and you have requirements that Maven doesn't fulfil easily. Maven is overly complex. Like I said, I intend to move to Buildr for my next project. However, there are problems that it solves for Java that other tools simply didn't, and Buildr and Ivy wouldn't exist without it and its repository structure, which Java sorely needed. I am willing to give it a pass for that. There's always room to get better, but I'd rather use Maven than Ant.