Microsoft's Source Destruction System

01/20/2005

With our new Subversion book due out in just a few weeks, a couple people of asked whether we’ll be doing a book on other version control systems, such as Visual Source Safe (VSS) from Microsoft.

Now I’ve never used VSS personally, but the hearsay evidence I’ve heard is pretty damning. Take for instance this (2002 vintage) report of one user’s experience. He calls VSS Microsoft’s Source Destruction System. It links to a similar article entitled Visual SourceSafe Version Control: Unsafe at any Speed.

This jives with what we’ve heard in the field for years—Source “Safe” is anything but.

Did I mention that Subversion is freely available and is currently up to version 1.1.3?

Subversion also has tools to migrate all of your history across from most existing VC systems, so you won’t lose anything if you decide to switch. Maybe it’s time to start the new year off right, with a new, better version control system.