We started building SourceSafe in January 1992 in the vacated dining room of the house belonging to one of my partners. Within a couple of short years SourceSafe went from concept to major success and was acquired by Microsoft in 1994, soon after which it became the most widely used version control system in the world. The thing that was truly novel about SourceSafe in the early 1990s was that it was really easy to learn and use. People tried it and just liked it. It wasn’t the most powerful system around but it had what people needed and was a refreshing break from complicated command line oriented interfaces.
However SourceSafe was designed and built in the early 90’s and a lot has changed since then. Technologies are different – the internet really didn’t exist in a meaningful way (web browsers were in early experimentation), databases were still complicated products primarily used for enterprise mission critical data, etc; and development is a lot different – projects were much smaller and less sophisticated then. The emergence of Visual Basic in the early 90’s really changed the landscape of development and brought a lot of people into the field who would have never previously considered it and made custom software a much bigger part of people’s lives.
Other trends have developed and gained a great deal of momentum. Frustration with traditional ways of executing software projects, the Agile set of development methodologies have become VERY popular, bringing with them a new set of practices – unit testing, continuous integration, TDD, and more.
Right around the beginning of 2003 – almost 11 years after beginning the SourceSafe journey, I and a few other people embarked to create Team Foundation Server. The goal was to create a development team collaboration product that would meet the needs of virtually any development team for the next couple of decades. It is based on modern technologies – SQL Server, ASP.NET, Web Services, .NET, etc. And it takes a comprehensive view of the software development lifecycle, with the intent of ultimately addressing all phases and all participants.
To make sure we could handle the broadest range, we started by targeting enterprise customers and development teams with more involved development processes. The pinnacle of that has been the Microsoft Developer Division experience that I’ve talked so much about where we have over 3,500 regular users and terrabytes upon terrabytes of data. However, it has been our intention from the beginning to build a toolset that is attractive to teams of all sizes and all levels of process.
For smaller teams, the most common complaints about TFS 2005 were that it was expensive, difficult to install, difficult to manage and required onerous pre-reqs. We made good progress on the setup experience in TFS 2008, although most of that was oriented towards enterprise customers who needed more installation flexibility.
Fast forward now to TFS 2010…
TFS 2010 represents a huge step forward in making TFS more approachable by smaller teams. With software development technology continuing to advance and SourceSafe slowly looking older, TFS 2010 is a great opportunity for SourceSafe users to look at updating their toolset.
So what’s different about TFS 2010?
There are 3 main areas that we’ve focused on in 2010 to make TFS attractive to smaller teams:
- Price – We’re not quite ready to announce the pricing and licensing for 2010 yet but I can tell you that it will be at least as easy and cost effective to get as SourceSafe has been. Stay tuned for more info on this.
- Pre-reqs – We’ve eliminated the vast majority of the restrictions TFS has historically had:
- TFS 2010 can be installed on a domain controller – We understand that many small organizations don’t have spare servers lying around and they need to be able to consolidate their servers. Now if you just have one server and it’s your domain controller, email server and whatever else you need it for, you can use it for TFS too!
- TFS 2010 can be installed on client OSes – The TFS server can be installed on Vista and Windows 7 Home Premium and above. Of course it can also be installed on server OSes (Windows 2K3, Windows 2K8 and Windows 2K8 R2). If you want to run version control locally on your laptop – you can do that. In fact, just to prove it out, I bought a Samsung N110 Netbook and installed VS 2010, TFS 2010 and a build server all on the Netbook, running Windows 7 and it works!
- TFS 2010 supports both 32 & 64 bit – No matter whether you’re running a newer 64-bit OS or an older 32-bit OS, TFS will work on your system.
- Installation – Installing TFS has been a pain point for years. Although it’s gotten better, 2010 represents a quantum leap. The TFS installer now has 3 wizards: Basic, Standard and Advanced. The big innovation is the new “Basic” install wizard. It is a Next, Next, Next install experience that allows you to install and configure TFS in about 20 minutes or less (assuming .NET and SQL Express are already on your computer – a little longer if TFS has to install them for you). Both will already be there if you’ve installed VS 2010. The Basic wizard will install and configure IIS (if it’s not already there), install and configure SQL Express (if it’s not already there), and install and configure TFS. The only thing that really pains me is installing .NET 4.0 requires a reboot :(. Here are screenshots of the entire installation experience:
And that’s it – TFS is installed and ready to use. There’s a similarly (but not quite as) easy wizard for configuring a build server on the same machine…
All of this gives you a development system with Version Control, Bug tracking and build automation (making continuous integration a snap!). What it lacks from Standard TFS is Sharepoint and Reporting capabilities. The great thing though is that TFS “Basic” IS TFS so as your needs grow you can reconfigure it to add more capabilities.
It’s a really exciting development and I hope you really like it. I encourage you to get TFS 2010 Beta 2 when it is available later this fall and give it a try.
As always, feedback is welcome!
Brian

Right around the beginning of 1993 – almost 11 years after beginning the SourceSafe journey
This should say 2003??
Can’t wait for using TFS 2010! As you mentioned in your post, the pricing of the previous versions (2005 & 2008) was pretty high. We had a difficult time convincing our customers to use TFS, pricing was the major bottleneck! Will Microsoft also change their Visual Studio prices? Thank you
Thanks to all of you who pointed out that I screwed up the for TFS. Despite proof reading it, I managed to miss that 🙁
Brian
Antonacci, I don’t think we’ll be changing SourceSafe pricing. It’s already pretty widely available and affordable.
Brian
No dependency on SP & Reporting, simple install, on domain controller,on 32 & 64 bit and that too on client OS’s that is indeed a quantum leap. :):) Looking forward to getting it on my laptop. Congrats to the team on awesome release. 🙂
Some great changes here – I will start using this for personal projects at home. Hope it will install on a windows home server.
SOunds Good so far…
now the question is will i be able to get my boss to buy the Team SKU’s of Visual STudio so that I can use this?
IMHO many of the tools in VS Team* should just be part of VS Pro or the prices for all of the SKU’s need to go down a bit at each level.
Wow … I have been banging my head around installing TFS on our dev server, with no luck.
Just can’t wait for this to come out … 🙂
Installation of TFS 2008 took couple of months from our IT. Simplifying installation is absolutely correct way to go. Keep on improving this great product.
I gave up installing TFS 2008 on SQL server 2008 and/or SQL server 2005. It was very difficult and did not work. Stupid SharePoint and reporting services were causing all sorts of issues. I will stick with SourceSafe for now. I use subversion which is very good. Have you guys address offline development issue. The biggest draw back from VSS and TFS is you have to constantly connect to source control. I hope M$FT fixes these issues in TFS 2010. Also, it makes very hard for some orgs to use additional license of SQL server. You should be able to use SQL Express version but it has size limit.
I still hope that you will offer a TFS Live or TFS Online, i.e. a cloud hosted option for the full TFS fun. After all, you need to do something with all your fancy data centers in any case, plus if there were simple/cheap/small packages available, this certainly would be an option with very little barriers for small shops.
Denny, FWIW, you don’t have to have a Team System role SKU to use TFS. You can purchase a TFS CAL (for <= $500) and use TFS with Pro or other development environments.
Brian
Ross,
I have not tried it myself but I have a report from one of our MVPs that he installed it on Home Server and was working well.
Brian
developer,
No, unfortunately, we didn’t make offline much better in this release. We added some support in 2008 to enable it and improved it in SP1. I’m thinking that will be an investment for our next release but we’ll see.
Yes, SQLExpress has a 2GB limit per database. That will be an issue for all but small shops. However, once we announce pricing and licensing, I think you’ll see that moving to SQL Standard won’t be a big issue from a cost perspective.
Brian
David,
Yes, we agree hosting is a very viable approach for many customers. For now we have a number of options for people. Microsoft offer CodePlex for free for public development projects and we have several partners offering paid hosting.
There are quite a few out there. I’m fairly familiar with SaaSMadeEasy and TeamDevCentral. Both have low cost getting started kinds of options.
Brian
Have you tried any kind of replication between a local TFS install and a "server" based TFS install? I don’t expect that it would work for TFS2010 without some major hacks, if at all. But I think it’s something that you should consider for TFS201X, as it would solve the offline problem.
Full source control and work item tracking locally, and then have it sync or do some kind of merge to a master server once you are connected again.
As part of our internal dogfooding effort, we have built a tool that will do replication between servers. At some point I’m going to try it out in the scenario you suggest and see how it works. My instinct is that it’s too blunt an instrument for this scenario but we’ll see. I agree it would be a VERY nice feature to have.
Brian
Will this TFS "Basic" be available for Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Professional Subscription?
@bharry for the record, SQLExpress has a 4GB limit, not 2. 🙂
Seth, I’d love to answer that but I can’t yet. We’ll be announcing pricing and licensing (including what else it will be included with) in the not too distant future.
Steve, indeed, you are correct – a brain fart. Sorry for that. It’s 4GB, not 2GB.
Brian
Great post. Really looking forward to TFS2010. Next, next , next install looks great.
Slightly off topic: will SourceSafe’s keyword expansion feature be included in TFS2010? I work with a person who is very fond of VSS because of its ability to inject keywords into SQL scripts stored in VSS.
Fantastic. This is a great boon for small enterprise. Well done chaps.
Will TFS 2010 have a upgrade path from TFS 2005.
Yes, it will support upgrading a 2010 server.
Steve, no, I’m afraid keyword expansion still isn’t there. Definitely something we’re going to look at again soon though.
Brian
Excellent news, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for so long. I already installed SVN on our Server, ready to jump the knife, but alas not need for that anymore! Good decision guys!
Great! But it’s possible to share project files like in SourceSafe now? This would be the main feature for us to switch to TFS.
Will there be a limit on the number of users?
fantastic news, we (I) are a very small team with one permanent and one part time developer. I’m still using VSS because VSTS was always far too big for Source Safe only usage.
No, there will not be a limit on # of users. More on pricing and licensing to come shortly.
Unfortunately no, there’s still no sharing feature. I know that’s likely to be the biggest obstacle to some users migrating from SourceSafe. There are some solutions available but none of them seamless. I’ve asked my team to spend some time trying to figure out how to make this easier for people.
I’ve written the past explanations of why we haven’t built sharing. It’s less because we haven’t had time than because we’re very worried that it makes it really easy for people to get themselves in trouble.
I realize there are many people who use it successfully and for whom that argument is hollow but there are also many who have sent me mail begging me not to implement sharing due to the troubles it’s gotten them in in the past.
Brian
Will we be able to use this TFS Lite version as a proxy to a full installation?
Thanks.
See my most recent blog post on synchronizing servers: http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/10/08/synchronizing-two-tfs-servers.aspx
Brian
first of all thanks for giving this excellent aticle which overview what wl be thr installtion process for tfs 2010.
hey i have just attended pit-stop road show in mumbai for VSTS 2010 and talked with the architechts,tfs team,program manager Tapan Acharya-India on vsts 2010.
We are using tfs 2008 not only for version control but also for all other features including reporting.My questions are as follows:
when TFS 2010 is going on live??
what about the documentation part like installable guide(.chm file)??
we are definatly going for upgradation from tfs 2008 to tfs 2010 but any documentation available??
Waiting for your reply.
you can email me at mayur.bondre@capgemini.com
We haven’t announced dates yet but here’s a high level roadmap for 2010.
We are very close to releasing Beta 2. Beta 2 will have a "go-live" license associated with it so that you can put it in production, get support and guarantee upgrading your data from Beta 2 to the final release.
Beta 2 will be the final Beta (we believe). Once we get the Beta feedback and finish the final work on the product, we will release it. We think this is in the first half of 2010.
Most of the documentation will be available at Beta 2. However our documentation team uses a "continuous publishing" model and will continue to write more 2010 documentation for 6-12 months after it releases.
I hope this helps,
Brian
Is there a 3rd party tool that will help upgrade current MS Agile template based Team Projects to the new template? The new template has a whole lot of interesting stuff, but we do not want to leave the 2 very important work item types Tasks and Bugs behind. There is a lot of data in there. Recreating that manually or losing the history on those work item types probably is not the best thing to do. The template team needs to do a better job to make the upgrades possible.
suggestion:
Name: "Team Foundation Server 2010 Express Edition"
Price: Free like all Express versions 🙂
?
Brian, with the "go live" license available with TFS 2010, what is the upgrade path look like for early adopters? If you roll out Beta 2 with the "go live" license, what’s the story look like for the upgrade to RTM?
Will TFS 2010 have the feature like VSS where you can do a get on files, and have the files reflect their modification date on the local hard drive?
Will I be able to import my VSS data into TFS?
Will TFS 2010 support VS2005 and VS2008 integration? I still need both for my old smart device projects which will not be supported by VS2010.
Is it possible to import a TFS 2008 version control database to TFS 2010. I would like to make a clean install but still need to keep version control history for my team.
dchitnis, There is no tool at this time, however, there will be instructions on process template upgrades. We hope to provide some tools to automate part of all of it down the road. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to use your current process template with TFS 2010.
Mike, Upgrading from Beta 2 to RTM should be very straight forward. You can uninstall Beta 2 and install RTM. Just specify the same database and all of your data will be preserverd.
Tom, No, unfortunately TFS doesn’t have a feature equivalent to SourceSafe’s Restore_ModTime. It’s one of a few features that we know enough SourceSafe users use that we need to add it to TFS but haven’t yet. We will as soon as we can.
Dex, Yes, you will be able to import your VSS data and use just about any version of VS – VS 2010 (with Team Explorer 2010), VS 2008 (with a patched Team Explorer 2008 – the patch is already available), VS 2005 (with a patched Team Explorer 2005 – the patch will be available around launch) or pre VS 2005 (with the TFS MSSCCI provider – available in the next few weeks).
Joona, Yes you will be able to import a TFS 2008 database. The installation guide under "upgrade" will tell you how to do it at install time. There’s also a command line tool to do it later (tfsconfig, I think). I’ll blog about it at some point.
Brian
It’s "terabyte", not "terrabyte".
Yes, you are right, thank you 🙂
Brian
Brian, will VSS be retired with TFS coming with VSTS? And can VSTS 2010 integrate with VSS 8.0 the same way in which 2008 integrates with VSS?
Thanks much,
Kel
No, VSS will not be "retired". It’s on the standard Microsoft support lifecycle. "Standard" support runs out in 2011 (I think), extended support continues for years after that. We’ll be providing a patch for the VSS 2005 product to work with VS 2010.
Brian
Good news for a lot of shops I guess. However for 1-2-3 man shops, I’m sure a lot will stick with Subversion. Simply because it’s free, works very well, and has great client tools support: TortoiseSVN, AnkhSVN etc.
That, is still better than a license of say 500-1000 quid.
Hello,
I have recently installed the TFS2010 on my XP Machine, but after installation, i don’t get TFS configuration wizard, i only get Build services configuration, my installation looks similar to the screenshots shown on this page, but i don’t get TFS configuration wizard, and i am also not able to start it from admin console from start menu. is that okay to go with XP? or i need to upgrade my system to 2003 or Vista? any help would be really nice….
Will there be a version of MSSCCI that enables us to use TFS 2010 with MS Access? I know it’s been an optional download with the last couple of releases, but can’t find anything for the beta.
Yes. It will still be a separate download. A 2010 compatible version will be available in the next week or two.
Will TFS 2010 include web access to enter a bug? (to enable those without VS to enter bugs)
Yes, TFS 2010 has an updated version of the TFS 2008 Web Access Power Tool integrated into the server install.
Brian
Hi,
Thanks for your post I found it whilst having problems installing TFS on my local machine as described in your article. Unfortunately I am unable to experience the quick and easy installation experience you describe here. I have asked a question in the Team Foundation Server Setup forums but my question has not yet been answered.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfssetup/thread/bd465019-797f-473b-bab8-e9302dcc6eb8
I hope you may be able to suggest where I am going wrong.
Perhaps I have found a bug in the installer and should file this as a bug with Connect?
I’m sorry you’ve had difficulty with it. I’ve just asked someone to look at your forum most. I’m not shocked no one has gotten to it yet as it was just posted on Sunday and it’s only mid day on Monday now. Someone should get on it shortly though.
Brian
Chiggs,
Yes, TFS won’t install on XP – only the build agent will. TFS will work on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2003, Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2.
Brian
Brian, thanks so much for you help. Some guys from the forum are now trying to help me. I think the installation problem on my machine will be solved soon.
We have shared files accross projects with great success in Visual Source Safe, as far back as 1995 if I remember correctly.
You can still implement the feature and leave it disabled by default, that way, only those who need it will use enable and use it.
File sharing will be the main road block to us and my team will have to skip on TFS 2010.
Thanks for provinding help………………
Hi Brian,
When you do TFS 2010 SP1 or TFS 20xx please, please! PLEASE! fix the offline support!
The offline support is horrible, the only way a company like ours will even consider TFS is if the offline support is on par with subversion.
If you want feedback/ideas on how to make TFS better in this respect I’ll be more then happy to contribute my ideas.
Thanks for this walkthrough. I found it very helpful.
Ken
Well anyone begging you to NOT include sharing because it causes THEM trouble needs to catch a clue. Don’t like it? Don’t use it.
I will never understand the need of people to prevent other people from having access to things they don’t like or can’t figure out.
Some of use sharing just fine thank you and not having it is a huge issue. Enough that I won’t be using TFS until it has it.
The patch for Visual SourceSafe 2005 is available:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB976375
We’re another team completely dependent on the Share/Pin feature of VSS. I have yet to find a solution in the branch/merge features of SubVersion, TFS, etc that would allow us to migrate our currently simple process!
Please implement Share/Pin (and Keyword Expansion) in TFS, and let the Admin disable it if it gets them in trouble!
Thanks,
Traci
We are using the RC of TFS2010 and it is GREAT!
I’ve read some articles that indicate that TFS (2008?) had the capability to work with a VSS client for applications that do not directly support TFS. does that exist for TFS?
Also, where is the VSS->TFS migration utility? I have not found it on TFS2010 RC.
Thanks!
I vote for the keyword expansion feature!
Would be a great help to us.
I have an "off the shelf" Acer brand Home Server. Decided to give TFS a go and install it. The Home Server can be very picky about custom changes, often my experiments break it. Some things work very well. But since Source Safe doesn’t appear to be long for this world, and looking at this cool new Visual Studio 2010 I downloaded today, I am feeling brave.
I do have one question, assuming TSF works without issue, I am an individual developer, team of 1. I don’t see any reason I would benefit, in any significant way, from the Build Service. I think all I want is TSF as a replacement for Source Safe, am I understanding this correctly?
There’s a good chance that for a team of one, you don’t need the build server. The only reason you might want it is if you want a continuous integration build or something like it to ensure that you’ve gotten everything checked in properly and it works in another environment. Other than that, I could imagine wanting to run some regression tests as part of the build but it’s a stretch.
Brian
Will the TFS 2010 client work with a TFS 2008 server?
Yes.
If anyone was interested, TFS worked just fine on my Acer brand Windows Home Server. The only real problem I had was related to upgrading from sql 2005 to sql 2008. Otherwise it just worked and was nearly as simple as SourceSafe.
TWO reboots of my server required? Can’t use SQL 2005? Gotta remove Frontpage extensions from IIS? Must run on Windows Server? Sounds like small shops and enterprises both will continue to bail out mid-install.
Geez, Sharepoint Services doesn’t play nice with your existing web apps on IIS either. I guess putting this on an existing app server is just not in the cards. Crazy.
Hello,
I have installed the official release of TFS 2010 and stepping through the config. I just want to put the BASIC on my machine. Ideally then, have the DB on a remote web server but if it HAS to be local then so be it. But it wants me to connect to a TFS server. I don’t have one, that is why I am installing the thing. (Seems like a Who’s on First joke)
What can I do here?
Thanks,
Kevin
If it’s asking you to connect to a TFS server as part of TFS setup – something is amiss. Wrong wizard or something. It could be the build configuration wizard. Could you tell me where what you are seeing diverges from the series of screen shots in this post?
Brian
visual studio was released and I was looking for news about TFS basic version (pricing, availability) and I am not able to find anything anywhere about when it will be available. Do you have some details to share about it?
Thanks
TFS Basic isn’t actually a different version. There’s only one TFS you can buy. "Basic" is one of the wizards than enables you to easily install TFS in just a few minutes without answering any complicated questions.
TFS 2010 comes with all levels of VS + MSDN and can be purchase for about $499 (retail) in the US. I don’t see it on Amazon yet but I assume it will be soon.
Brian
Hi Paul Mavini,
Can you contanct me? (You can e-mail me by going to http://blogs.msdn.com/ablock/contact.aspx ) I’d like to hear what error you were hitting.
Thanks,
–Aaron
I figured out that my problem with the install was that my computer was still part of a domain from the last contract I was on. I removed it from that domain and could continue.
Only to find out that I didn’t read the "requirements" that I can NOT run it on my XP machine.
Doh! So I guess I will slap it on my Windows 7 box.
Thanks!
Hello –
Just failed (!) with installation of TFS on a Windows 7 Ultimate laptop. The first step was ok, but then the installer said, it could not connetc to tfs server (SQLExpress 2008). Tfs website shows in inetmgr, but connection to http://localhost:8080/tfs gives an HTTP 500 error.
Has someone made the same (odd) experience?
Greetings Roland
Now that VS2010 is released, what is exactly the impact of TFS basic on the != versions? (licensing question).
According to VS2010 version matrix, the main difference between VS Pro "with MSDN essentials" and VS Pro "with MSDN" is TFS:
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products
But it seems to be the "big" TFS (with CAL and full SQL Server). So is there a easier (and cheaper) variant of TFS Basic on SQL Express which can be used in VS2010 Pro "essentials" (or even cheaper, VS2008 Std + 2010 Upgrade without MSDN at all)?
We ultimately decided to ship just one TFS package that includes both the "standard" and "lightweight" (TFS Basic) installs. You either get it with VS Pro + MSDN and up or you can buy it standalone for around $500 (including the rights for up to 5 people to use it). Your only options with VS2010 Pro retail with MSDN Essentials is to purchase TFS separately.
I’m not sure about the VS2008 Std + 2010 Upgrade without MSDN but since it doesn’t include MSDN, the answer should be the same (buy TFS separately) because TFS is an MSDN benefit.
Brian
I have used VSS2005 for a great period and was familiar with the process…
In VSS2005 the user could "Check In" or "Check Out" the files present in VSS DB.
I am able to do the necessary changes through two different terminals with single user, but I need to
know how can I add different "Users" who can make changes in TFS DB ??I mean, how can I
know which user has made the change in particular file if there are no different users ??
Thanks in advance !!
I'm not 100% sure I understand your question but… In TFS we don't have our own user list like VSS had, we just use Windows users. Any user with a Windows account or an Active Directory account can, in principle use TFS.
You can give people permission by running Team Explorer and using the Group Membership… menu item under Team -> Team Project Settings.
If you want to test logging in as another user (other than the one you are currently logged in as) the easiest thing to do is to use "runas" to run VS as another user.
Brian
Wonderful. I have just managed to install TFS basic in my Windows Home Server box for personal projects. No hassles, straightforwards installation. Truly wonderful.
Hi, I am not able to configure TFS in a domain controller, looks like NT AuthorityNetworkService is not available in a Domain Controller. How do i work around this?
I could installe tfs on my domain controller by following the suggestion of this link:
social.msdn.microsoft.com/…/36f6f9fd-4d59-4c43-9ac8-7d2532e44a58
Wilson, it should just work for new installs. If you send me an email, I can have someone connect with you and understand the root of the problem.
Brian
Does VS2008 integrate with TFS2010(basic)?
Yes, you can use VS 2008 with Team Explorer 2008 to talk to a TFS 2010 server installed with the Basic install wizard.
Brian
It has now been a while – please add keyword expansion support.
I have been over in Subversion/Cruise Control for last 4 years. Initially, I didn't get the 'copy out' / 'check in-merge' of Subversion but I came to appreciate it. It puts burden on 1) developer to 'copy out / merge' daily or hourly… and has good affect of distributing merge to user which 2) means that almost no effort is needed by the time you check-in.
Also, continous build is now (in my mind) a best practice – not an option.
Is TFS Basic available now and at what cost?
Yes, it shipped as an installation option for TFS 2010. There's only one TFS product and "Basic" is one of the install wizards. You can get TFS 2010 a number of ways. It comes with your VS + MSDN subscription, for example. If you don't get it any other way, you can buy it separately for $500 (list price) and it includes a license for up to 5 users to use it.
Brian
Can I use VWD 2010 and TFS client if so how?
You did the world a real disservice when you created Visual SourceSafe. What were you thinking when you decided to use a file-share method, instead of db method? Did you think that you'd cause corruption, and unreliable source control operations? Unix had reliable source control when you created SourceSafe. You inflicted a flawed product on developers for years. Great job, not!
I wouldn't normally respond to a comment like this but you've pissed me off. I'll probably regret it but here it goes. Dude, do you understand when SourceSafe was written? We started building it Jan 1st 1992. Virtually every version control system in the planet was a flat file storage system. Windows 3.1 was state of the art. Most people used DOS and a "server process" was called a "TSR" (that's true but is a joke none-the-less). Novell was king of servers and they had crap for a server programming model. Windows/NT didn't exist. Client/server was just starting to be talked about. The internet (as you think of it today) didn't exist. PC based databases were nowhere. RCS and SCCS were king and they used the same architecture.
In it's day SourceSafe was state of the art. Further, it changed the world. It was the first version control system with a decent GUI. It made version control approachable for a mass of people for whom version control wasn't even a consideration. It was simple and flexible. In no time it grew to be the most popular version version control system in the world.
I'm proud of what we did. Yes it had issues. Yes, it's very dated now. In 2002, when we decided to build TFS, we picked a completely different architecture – for a reason. A lot had changed in 10 years. When you've produced something millions of people have used and loved, let me know.
Brian
Sadly BH – some people need to learn and they just dont get it. Well said nonetheless.
It annoys me when they just dont get it or even know how to use a product and start blaming the product company (i.e MS) for their own sillyness and no understanding of how evolution works and what a product lifecycle is and how things progress….
just to add – I honestly never had many issues with VSS – because I knew how it worked and also got the right documentation and training to use software….
Great Post Brian . I got my hands on with Microsoft Test manager and does have very user firendly interface. I was wondering if TFS 2010 has reporting capabilities. Please let me know if I can generate reports using Microsoft Test Manager. Appreciate your help.
Thanks
There are some reports build into Microsoft Test Manager. However, the expectation is that for custom reporting you'd use Excel or some other tool against the data warehouse to build the additional visualizations you want.
This article series looks like a good start: visualstudiomagazine.com/…/tfs-reporting-with-excel-1.aspx
And here's a pretty thorough documentation topic on it: msdn.microsoft.com/…/bb649552.aspx
Brian
Thanks for the nice post. where can i download this TFS for windows 7 ultimate.?
pls help
@gayathri, Here: http://www.microsoft.com/…/downloads Download Team Foundation Server Express.
Brian
k
Can I import my VSS 6.0 database into TFS ?
@Theo – If you want to use the migration tools, you must first upgrade the VSS 6.0 database to VSS 2005. If you don't have a copy of VSS 2005, I believe you can contact customer support to get a copy for the purpose of migrating to TFS. Also note, if you don't need the history, you can always just copy the latest version of sources in VSS and add the files to TFS. Some teams find that just copying the tip and keeping the old VSS database around if you need it to be the most effective and lowest cost in the long run. It also gives you an opportunity to clean up your code base, rethink branching strategies, etc.
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