VSTS Checks in New Source Control

Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) includes a new source-code control system designed to address some of the weaknesses that kept Visual SourceSafe from being used in many enterprise development environments. Microsoft has historically left tools for team development, such as source-code control systems, to third parties, but the acquisition of Microsoft’s largest tools partner-Rational-by its biggest enterprise competitor-IBM-sparked new interest in team development.

However, VSTS, like Visual Studio itself, is available for Windows only, and organizations with substantial development on non-Windows platforms will want to evaluate the integration benefits of VSTS against the support for Linux and Unix workstations offered by competing products. Finally, the server-based architecture of VSTS means that Microsoft will charge developers and project managers Client Access Licenses (CALs), a licensing compliance complexity that developers have thus far avoided.

(For background information on VSTS, including an overview of its basic architecture, see “Team System Targets Multiple Roles“.)