How to convince a company to switch their Source Control [closed]

Question

My current place of employment is currently in a transition, new ownership has taken over, things are finally getting standardized and proper guidelines are being enforced.

But we are still using VSS, there really isn't any reason for using it other then that's what whats initially setup. We don't use Visual Studio, or any tool really that specifically requires it.

What would be the absolute best argument I can bring up to help convince them that going to something like Subversion would be a much better solution, in the long run.

Answer 1

VSS totally relies on the clients to manage the database. If a client drops connection in the middle of a write over the network at just the wrong time, your file is trashed on the server. Not just the tip, but all the history. Hope you have a good backup. I've been through it. It's bad news.

VSS usage over VPN or other remote connections is abysmal. It's using SMB to transfer the data, and you have to retrieve the file and all of its deltas just to get the tip. Nasty.

I've seen VSS start to act up at 1GB of data. Database errors, etc. MS (somewhere in a FAQ or KB) says that 2GB is really the max safe limit. There are no good management tools (the clients run the asylum), so you don't really get any warning about this.

Anything with a server process to provide some level of transactions and integrity control is a superior solution.

Answer 2

The best argument would have to be the reason why you want them to switch to subversion. :)

I know absolutely nothing about VSS, but the phrase "if it ain't broken don't fix it" comes to mind. You have to show your managers that VSS is broken and needs fixing. Even better if you can show management how it would save them money.

Answer 3

@Adam Davis: Uhhh actually Adam, VSS is a horrible source control system. It has a long history of corrupting history and losing data. It is terrible at merging, doesn't handle multiple developers well and is very slow. Also the history is poor. Microsoft don't really support it any more, you'll note that they never used it for their own internal development and now they don't even sell it in favour of a more modern solution (VSTS). In short, if you have to choose between VSS and any other type of source control, go with the alternative.

Answer 4

By just going over the features good source control brings:

• ability to easily see logs of who did what, when, and in what order, to which files
• keep a history of past versions of everything
• easily go back and reproduce a specific version of your files from any past version, to more easily reproduce bugs reported in older versions
• ability go retrieve deleted code, or remove unwanted changes, without having to worry about losing data in the process