I share your feelings... the way we handle sources right now is completely outdated and out of century. 
now, some steps are being taken to improve situation) some others not: 

You actually can change the default package-cache location. In fact, it is there because historical issues: years ago, the usual way to develop was to use just one image, and load everything there. Now we have changed that approach (*we*, that does not happens in other communities), and we usually start a new image when we want to do something new. 
To learn how to redirect your cache, follow this post from Mariano: http://marianopeck.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/pharo-tips-and-tricks/
Also... I want to propose to default the configuration to a shared package cache, but well... 

btw... this "previous" way of development was the main reason why some stupid problems are emerging just now, i'e. MC breaks with long package-cache (already fixed), or the obvious observation for everyone now that MC does not fit us... it was perfectly fine until a couple of years ago, but now is being a burden more than a help :)
And well... about the MC thing,  while I disagree with the "compatibility" approach of Dale with cypress (I think he should just drop MC compatibility... is force a ferrari to run with wooden wheels), he is making a huge effort to allow the community to use git (and I suppose that work would be easily portable to others like mercurial, darcs, etc.)

Anyway... there is no magic solution (and Ulysse the monkey just know how to run tests, we failed to teach him to program for us :)... 
This things take time and effort... we can be there eventually, but we can do just one step at a time. 

best,
Esteban

On Jul 4, 2012, at 3:13 PM, Friedrich Dominicus wrote:

Well I can not follow  this completely. I can not find an answer of why
text-based solutions won't cut it  and I have also no idea what an
object-oriented revision control might  have other than a very good way
of handling text. I guess I wil have to find some older threads  to get
an idea.

Anyway what I can't understand is that we can not simply switch from
fone repository to another. It does not even have  to be always
up-to-date.

Let me just ask you, how much time do you need if squeacksource is gone
to get a new image filled up and running. No I do not know how often you
do that but I for my part do it with nearly every Pharo version there
is.

I'm now trying to get some stuff installed in Pharo  2.0 (I guess you
want this stuff to be used) and it takes me hours over hours and I still
do not get anywhere.

So I simply do not get  why we just have a register of places where we
can find this stuff and are not "forced" to code  that into the
monticello packages.

Well if  I have to than at least Pharo should be able to easily allow me
to run a kind of grep/replace in the ConfigurationOfFiles. AFAIKt I have
the Extended search but this does just searching and not replacing. So
I'm suposed to manually change all the ConfigurationOf to look in my
local cache first. This is at least odd.

Another  stuff I simply do not get is package-cache. Why is it local to
every other Pharo image? Why can't I say drop all below package-cache on
my machine that's it. I do not know how many copies I have around here
with the same "information". I can not see why this should make sens in
the "standard" case....

I'm sorry but I simply do not understand a few things really. And well I
can also not see an advantage of not treating sources as text-files for
easier handling. This stupid text-files work since decades....

Regards
Friedrich