I am considering getting VSS and was wondering what were people's thoughts on it in particular?
+24
A:
It's well-known to corrupt data. There are many better alternatives. If you need to match the feature-set and GUI, check out Vault from SourceGear. Free alternatives are numerous --- from the ubiquitous svn to the more modern (distributed) git, mercurial, etc.
Also, TFS is the MS replacement -- if you want MS tools, at least use TFS.
Lou Franco
2010-08-02 19:08:54
We have been using Vault for a while and I agree with Lou, if you want a very similar feature set but very enhanced, faster, MUCH more reliable it's the way to go.
SBUJOLD
2010-08-02 19:14:14
Is that still true? I heard that almost 10 years ago, but maybe they fixed it??? Note: I'm plenty happy using git or svn, for free, so VSS is *not* something I would spend *my* money on, BUT, I have not used it in many years. VSS did suck back in 2001, though.
Roboprog
2010-08-02 19:38:54
We looked at TFS as well. However, in our team we have a preference for small light weight tools and perceived TFS too big, too hard to change, run, configure. In addition we didn't like the costs associated with it. Instead we went for free best-of-breed tools, each suitable for their purpose. Write up your requirements, identify your options, test them out, then decide what works best for you. And yes, definitely go away from SourceSafe, no matter what!
John
2010-08-02 20:12:29
Who knows if it still has those problem -- no one would take a chance -- it doesn't get major revisions any more -- it's reputation is tarnished.
Lou Franco
2010-08-02 20:20:52
Yes, it was still doing this in the last version. I very recently helped a company move from Visual SourceSafe 2005 to SVN for these reasons.
Phil Gilmore
2010-08-02 21:15:29
@Roboprog: It is inherent in the "just a file share" model that VSS uses.
Richard
2010-08-05 15:52:49
@Manfred: If developers have MSDN subscriptions at a level suitable for professionals TFS is now included (and TFS includes a SQL Server licence for use by TFS) so the only cost is hardware. Install/maintenance takes little unless your team is large. Basic customisation (e.g. adding/changing fields for workitems) is very easy with the PowerToys (its all GUI).
Richard
2010-08-05 15:55:09
+15
A:
Jeff Atwood has a nice post: Anything But SourceSafe
There is no excuse for using VSS when there are other solutions such as SVN, Git and Mercurial which are better both in terms of reliability and use more modern approach then VSS.
Giorgi
2010-08-02 19:11:08
+4
A:
My thoughts:
AHHHHHHHHHRHRHRHGGGEHAGTJH@#$@!&#&$!&@#@!@#%^@#$%
No. Seriously.
Before I knew how evil it was (newbie dev), I used it. Then, it corrupted an entire project I was working on. What a pile of garbage.
Use Subversion, Git, or Mercurial...for your own sanity.
JasCav
2010-08-02 19:11:22
+2
A:
Microsoft is pushing Team Foundation Server (TFS) as a replacement for VSS. VSS does offer the simplicity of a file based system, but you will spend a good amount of time repairing the database every so often. TFS is a much more reliable server based system. Visual Studio 2010 comes with a client license and a up to 5 person server license of TFS. You are better off putting your money there.
TFS Costs.
Because the question is a license/price issue, you can call 1-800-426-9400, Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. (Pacific Time) to speak directly to a Microsoft licensing specialist, and you can get more detail information from there.
Carter
2010-08-02 19:15:16
@dewalla. I added the phone number for Microsoft licensing. If you have 5 people or less, it gets pretty cheap, you only have to buy one MSDN Subscription for Team System and then a Visual Studio 2010 Professional for each person. More than 5 users, you have to get the real server product. The pricing is different depending on Government/Student discounts and upgrades from previous products.
Carter
2010-08-02 19:31:11
@dewalla: You can get upgrade pricing for moving from Visual Studio 2008 to 2010, but the stand-alone VSS product will not trade for TFS. If you already have VSS, what's the problem?
Carter
2010-08-02 19:37:49
TFS 2010 Costs about $500 (Plus CALs at about $40 per user) that is not too bad (though more than subversion (Free)).
Vaccano
2010-09-03 18:58:31
+1
A:
Use TFS, Perforce, or maybe git.
Even if SourceSafe wasn't extremely dangerous to use (corruption, mentioned already)... just having file versions for source control really sucks. It's almost unbelievable that this type of source control is still widely used.
You want changeset or task-based source control. You'll want to easily know what files went into a specific change... not just a bunch of independently incrementing file numbers.
Perforce is VERY fast, and I'm very happy with it.
I use TFS for one major client, and it's been pretty good too. At the time I set up Perforce, TFS required a Server OS and license for that somewhere. I didn't want to have to set up yet another VM, so I went with Perforce.
I'd still easily choose Perforce today, though. That's mostly because I work with multiple platforms. As the main Perforce GUI client uses Qt, it looks and works the same on any OS.
darron
2010-08-02 19:56:18
Actually TFS can live on a Windows 7 box pretty handily starting with TFS 2010. Previous versions required a server OS.
Robaticus
2010-08-02 20:10:36
Is TFS available as a stand alone or does it come with some other peice of software?
dewalla
2010-08-05 17:48:23
Well, the expensive version used to be available standalone, and probably still is. However, it's now free with a limited license as part of MSDN (Visual Studio Team Developer, etc)... and that limited license version might not be available standalone. Anyone?
darron
2010-08-06 13:55:05
A:
VSS might be the right answer for some situations (e.g.: small group of devs using visual studio, not generally doing concurrent dev, fault tolerant env. (back-ups), etc.). I think the more important question is how your version control fits into your overall dev & release process. VSS and git are conceptually very different things in some very important ways and how your SDLC works is an important aspect of choosing a control system.
G. Wright
2010-08-02 20:48:57