VSS or SVN for a .Net Project? [closed]

Answer 1

Just an addition to Koista Navin's answer.

He said: Here is a great book on this subject: Version Control with Subversion by C Pilato

There is a free online version:

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/

Answer 2

AnkhSVN 2.0 is really very good.

If you had Visual Studio integration as a requirement, I would have warned against SVN even a year ago, but that's changed in a big way. It's still not as good as, say, VS Team System, but it's much better than the old MSSCCI-based VSS integration. There's no reason not to use SVN with .NET.

Answer 3

Speaking as someone who went through the VSS -> SVN transition process for a large codebase, I would say the biggest benefit is being able to sleep soundly knowing that your SCM system wont suddenly have a hiccup that corrupts your database and you have to go back to yesterday's backup. You do backup your database daily, right?

With VSS, corruption happened at least once per month. With SVN (same hardware & OS) - not once in over two years.

Oh, and the branching/merging capabilities are sweet!

Answer 4

SVN is more popular than VSS and has lot's of advantages. VSS is old and outdated.

• Why Not VSS
• Visual SourceSafe: Microsoft's Source Destruction System
• Source Control: Anything But SourceSafe
• Visual SourceSafe Version Control: Unsafe at any Speed?

Many developers nowdays are moving from VSS to SVN. If you will search for "SVN" and "VSS" in Google, it will show you lots of articles related to VSS to SVN migration.

• VSS's lock-modify-unlock model makes collaboration on rapidly-changing files a major headache. Plus the overhead of needing an admin to unlock files that someone has checked out while they're on vacation.
• With VSS, it's not a question of if you'll lose data - it's WHEN. Your source repository is supposed to be a rock - if a developer's workstation crashes, you should only have lost HIS changes. You shouldn't lose random files and data from the repository
• VSS hasn't been maintained by MS in over 6 years. Can you even get support for it anymore?
• Depending on your backup tools, you may not be able to get a complete backup of your VSS repository if you have just one person left logged into the server (meaning they left their dev tools open, or left the VSS client running).
• VSS requires that all users have nearly full control, at the filesystem level (NTFS permissions), of the files that make up the repository.
• There is no good, usable, easily available published API for VSS and 3rd-party tools are weak for the most part.
• Merging sucks in VSS.
• VSS: If you have developers spread across multiple timezones, the very act of both of them checking in can corrupt the database if they check in too close together, in the wrong order.

Now, this isn't to say that Subversion is faultless - there are certainly things it could do better, and things it doesn't do at all. But all the people who worked with VSS and SVN most likely will never come back to VSS.

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If you will choose SVN. Here is a list of tools you may need:

• AnkhSVN is a Subversion SourceControl Provider for Visual Studio.
• RapidSVN is a cross-platform Subversion client.
• TortoiseSVN is an easy to use SCM / source control software for Microsoft Windows and maybe the best standalone Subversion client there is.
• VisualSVN is a Visual Studio plug-in that integrates Subversion and TortoiseSVN seamlessly with Visual Studio.
• VisualSVN Server is a package that contains everything you need to install, configure and manage Subversion server for your team on Windows platform. It includes Subversion, Apache and a management console.

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Here is a great book on this subject: Version Control with Subversion by C Pilato

Version Control with Subversion http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iwjNGkQdL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

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Another good alternative to VSS and SVN is SourceGear Fortress which has Issue Tracking system in addition to source control - all in one. Or SourceGear Vault - source control only. Also there is SourceAnyWhere solution. If you need Microsoft solution than go with TFS instead of VSS.

Answer 5

Just as an aside, we've been using Sourcegear Vault for a number of years quite happily. Having repositories and a central SQL Server database along with great access over the internets made it a slam dunk for our organization.

I think it's reasonably priced and at least worth a look.

Answer 6

Microsoft has admitted to never using VSS on any of their internal projects (can't find the reference right now though :/). I used it for two years and it was stupid bad. Database was corrupted at least once a week.

Also, one of my favorite things to quote to VSS users is the first quote on Eric Wadworth's page, reportedly from someone at Microsoft:

"Visual SourceSafe?  It would be safer to print out all your code,
run it through a shredder, and set it on fire."

Definitely go with SVN. VSS is like the nightmares of 1000 demons.