In the avenue of Software Version Control and Agile Technologies there are two competing technologies, open-source Subversion SVN and Microsoft SourceSafe 2005 (now Team System).

But which is which and what benefits does each offer?

Subversion

Subversion in it’s essence is open-source so is perfectly suited for LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) projects. It is uniquely flexible and simple to apply to any medium type or operating system, with easy integration to Windows via the TortoiseSVN software add-on.

It allows you to import, commit, export and differentiate successive code releases down to their line numbers really easily.

Also being in the public domain, the source-code is frequently updated and bugs fixed rapidly due to the larger exposure of it’s code-base.

Microsoft SourceSafe

Very similar to Subversion, it has been designed as a source-code cataloging and version control tool primarily for .NET / Visual Studio projects; and thus it’s flexibility ends there. It does however allow you to set aside a server as your primary project Source center and drill down to key changes in code, much like SVN.

People however have complained about a long-running database corruption issue within but this should be fixed.

So Which ?

Well the tight integration into the VS.NET IDE environment is a definite plus and on top of this SourceSafe gives you a database and Vault repository in which it keeps track of code changes; however the O/S inflexibility and more importantly the new VS.NET Team System pricing does put it out of scope for small businesses and independent startups.

It really is like my dad says ‘horses for courses’, SS maybe good in a Microsoft-Only environment, but SVN maybe better for independent startups and projects where flexibility and O/S independence are vital.

Really down to you, I know this isn’t that detailed a guide but should give you some idea as to which to choose.

What do I use ?

In reality I employ both,

For my Ruby on Rails projects I use a mixture of Capistrano, Deprec capped to a SubVersion repository on the Linux server. Works well as my development machine for that is an Apple Mac.

Workwise, I employ Subversion + TortoiseSVN to keep catalogued and protected all my web script files and xhtml micro-sites, with the repositories kept on a protected remote server.

However all my VS.NET applications are kept under SourceSafe control, hooked up to a remote server in another office; used by other developers.

Works quite well, the quick-install nature of SVN would allow me to get up-to-speed from a stolen laptop really fast (if another machine existed on standby). VS.NET would take longer but then that comes with the territory, but could be faster if you had a disk-image on standby with a carbon-copy of your development system setup.

Your choice.

John.