Update on my Source Control Trials

Well, if you recall a while back I had a call out about SCM solutions as I wanted to get away from my combination of command line cvs +ssh +cygwin for source control management.

Since that time, I have reviewed several solutions and still haven't come to a system I am completely happy with. They all have pieces that I like, and most have things that I DON'T like.

Right now I am leaning towards the use of Subversion with TortoiseSVN Windows shell extensions. Let me explain why this solution might work for me:

• Has all the things I liked in CVS
  
• Fixes most of the stuff I don't like about CVS. ie: Directories, renames, and file meta-data are versioned, support for atomic checkins and better branching
  
• Speaking of branching, it now has no extra "cost" in doing so. There is no expensive overhead as there is in CVS. It deals with tags WAY different.
  
• Handles binaries just like txt files. YAHOO!! (*My number one beef with CVS, besides CVS throwing garbage in every one of my directories*)
  
• TortioseSVN seems easy to use and actually looks nice. No cumbersome and complex ugly looking UI to make the entire process more complex then it needs to be
  
• Subversion server works on my existing Linux machines
  
• No reliance on a web server to run (but can use Apache with WebDav)
  
• Cost. Its free!
  

If it wasn't for finding TortioseSVN, I would have probably went with Perforce. Perforce also works on my Linux servers, and the UI seemed decent enough. I will let you know how it goes as I begin to actually use the new system on a daily basis concurrently with my existing solution. Hopefully within a month or two I will phase out cvs through cygwin and exclusively run through TortoiseSVN with Subversion.

I'll let you know how it goes.