Well congrats obviously :) Personally i am quite unhappy with VSS, why is it that when open source efforts like Subversion can come up with such good branching and merging support MS can not? Is it a policy decision or are you guys brewing something under the covers? Is Team System Server your next baby?

Must say I have no idea how VSS could win. I'm a MS fan for many years, and even I hate it. After the issues I had with VSS in the last project I ran I can categorically state that VSS is not going to be featuring in any future projects I'm in charge of.

When Team System Server comes out, I'll have a look, but if you've just added some new lipstick to the VSS engine (ala VSS2005B1), I won't be using it.

Don't be a hater! :-)

But seriously, thanks for your candid feedback. TeamSystem is all new. It's not a pig with lipstick. It is not based on the VSS engine, either. Beta1 has just been refreshed -- and it now includes TeamSystem! There are links below. You can download it if you are an MSDN subscriber, or you can order (free) CDs or DVDs if you are not. I think there are postage and shipping charges -- somewhere in the $9 range I think.

I hope that TeamSystem addresses the issues you faced on your last project and the new branching and merging features should also prove useful. Please let us know what you like...and dislike.

While we haven't made significant major changes to SourceSafe in several years, this year we have made a concerted effort to address the top customer requests and deficiencies in SourceSafe 2005. We've made performance improvement a focus -- particularly with our plug-in for Visual Studio, and especially with regard to the Internet (http(s)) access scenario. We're really interested in addressing the issues you've faced, and we'd appreciate it if you took the time to enter those issues into our new bug feedback center. Each bug you enter can be tracked over its lifetime, and the product team enters comments into it as each issue is investigated and addressed.

Sometimes the truth hurts, but thank you for your honsesty! :-)

TeamSystem info http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/">http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/
Beta1 Refresh main http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/
Download Beta1 refresh http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/
Order CDs or DVDs http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/get/order/
Bug feedback center http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/

Between the likely cost and some of the overly complicated design decisions like Active Directory integration, I am completely uninterested in Team System. Please continue to improve Visual Source Safe by giving it some badly needed features (changesets, better API, etc).

Did anyone who voted for SourceSafe actually use anything else ? I have been programming independently for almost 25 years. I should have become fluent with version control systems decades ago. But I was finally forced to learn SourceSafe a couple of years ago. It immediately proved to me how badly I needed to use a good source control system. It also proved to me that I needed one that actually worked. My personally oppinion, Kill it. Just about everything else out there is better. Open up the API for MSDEV so that it is easier to integrate a real SCM (it appears this is happening) and kill of the stupid locking model.