Here is my best attempt to articulate why I believe all dependencies, including compiler toolchains, belong in version control.

https://www.forrestthewoods.com/blog/dependencies-belong-in-version-control/

Dependencies Belong in Version Control

Why dependencies should be checked into version control.

@forrestthewoods what about using SVN instead of git? If everyone is constantly syncing against the same server, what's the advantage of being distributed?
@morten_skaaning TBH I haven’t used SVN in 20 years. I’m not sure its modern feature set. It’s never really impressed me though.

@forrestthewoods @morten_skaaning SVN was designed as a direct replacement for CVS, and included such novelties as tracking the state of the entire repository tree, rather than per-file checkouts, or branches that you could actually understand how to use.

Anyone who has used CVS is not laughing at the circus.

@wolfpld @forrestthewoods I can't tell whether irony or sarcasm is used here?
@morten_skaaning @forrestthewoods No sarcasm this time. The majority of open source projects were using CVS at the time, and switching to SVN was a huge quality-of-life improvement.
@morten_skaaning @forrestthewoods Well, I guess my sarcastic tone that you read was directed at how shitty CVS was.

@wolfpld @morten_skaaning @forrestthewoods SVN was an incredible breath of modern fresh air over CVS.

I still prefer SVN over git in a lot of ways even though git obviously has some upsides as well. It just feels like the world collectively gave up on it and moved on. (At least the public world, I know a lot of closed source stuff still runs it successfully.)