(side note: best to add comments below what you comment on, not above -- this way, I can see what you talk about directly in the pull request, without having to go to a different page and look at the full diff :-).

Yeah, well, that might make sense. Though, I kind of wonder why we ask the question instead of *always* checking out as read/write for the current user (the one who invoked Fink)? Rationale: First off, one should run as few things as possible as root, and especially if these things access the network -- like VCS. Secondly, I am convinced most people run Fink from their regular user account, and it'll be the only one. Lastly, the few people who really want the checkout to belong to another user surely will be able to figure out how to override this, no?