Eran Kampf
Eran Kampf
2 min read

Personal Source Control - Which One Are You Using?

I’ve been trying to find a decent source control system to use for some time now without real success.

I used to have only one machine, with Visual SourceSafe and everything was great. Today, when working on personal projects I have about 3-4 machines I use (Home, Laptop, Work, Parents home) and managing the files on all these machines is becoming unconformable.
Currently I use a Visual SourceSafe database on my main machine (home) and I sync the files between the computers using FolderShare. I don’t like this because:

  • All the machines except the main one work in disconnected mode
  • I can only check-in\check-out files on my main machine at home so usually I just do the following (which is bad):
    • Check-out everything on my main machine.
    • Work on my other machines.
    • Wait for everything to sync back to the main machine.
    • Check-in everything.
  • I can’t manage changes this way…
  • Using FolderShare is risky – A corrupt file in one machine will sync to all the rest.
  • Visual SourceSafe web access is crap! I’ve spent hours trying to get this thing to work…

So, I’m currently looking for a new system to hold my files. A system that could:

  • Manage versions, changes, branches and everything else a modern source control system supports.
  • Accessible via http.
  • Integrates with Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Team System is perfect for my needs but I’ll probably have to mortgage everything I own just to get it working so the last requirement is – it has to be cheap.

So, any suggestions? Which source control system are you using for your personal projects?