As a Maven user it would be nice if it's possible to store the downloaded libs directly into my big local Maven repository, so my Maven projects and Gradle projects would have just one cache of interchangeable use.

If it's not possible, at least a way to set Gradle' cache directory would aim the use of a shared cache

I agree that optional sharing would make sense. One issue with this is that Gradle is not Maven only but also supports Ivy which has a different notion of a cache. In fact the layout of the gradle cache could not be used by Maven. We will look for a solution in 0.10.

I think a simple mavenLocal() helper analogous to mavenCentral() would be a first step that wouldn't interfere with anything. Right now it's just plain out messy.

I see this issue has been fixed - thanks! But how was it fixed in the end? The ticket does not link through to any commits but I'm curious what exactly has changed.

mavenLocal() was added. More informations about the commit is available at https://github.com/gradle/gradle/commit/68c268f105b3be8bda6b2f8b4ed6afcd9f1f993a

You guys are quick! Can't wait to introduce Gradle in our team, it will make life so much easier...