Free source control alternative to Subversion -

i know if there scm meets these criteria:

• not keeping entire depot history locally because can huge projects
• not polluting entire source tree hidden directories (like .svn ones)
• work decently binary files, or @ least able limit number of revisions store them (like perforce)
• sync on http
• free
• optionally, able link other repositories or ones other scm (something svn:externals)

(as of unreleased) svn 1.7 away .svn directory in each directory.

from http://subversion.apache.org/docs/release-notes/1.7.html#wc-ng :

a key feature of changes introduced in subversion 1.7 centralization of working copy metadata storage single location. instead of .svn directory in every directory in working copy, subversion 1.7 working copies have 1 .svn directory—in root of working copy. directory includes (among other things) sqlite-backed database contains of metadata subversion needs working copy.

i've never been bothered .svn dirs littered throughout - packaging or deploy using svn export seemed make them not matter when mattered. out of curiosity, what's making them onerous in situation?