[INDUSTRY] Visual Source Safe is...

...neither visually appealing nor a safe repository for source code. Ha ha, what a lame play on words.

While we're on the subject of source control, I thought I'd bring up Visual Source Safe (VSS), which many companies out there still use.

VSS is a joke. I've used it. A few quick reasons why VSS is a terrible source control system:

• It costs money. That in and of itself should dissuade you, when there are better implementations out there that are free. It'd be like paying for Windows- oh wait. I mean, it'd be like paying for Internet Explorer. Six.
• You can permanently delete files. How exactly is this different from a normal file system, again?
• You can't make branches.
• "User-unfriendly" does not even begin to describe it. It could easily be used as an example of bad usability design, sort of like Microsoft Word's "Clippy". Some (mostly fabricated) quotes by the infamous character, and a quick overview of the problems with it. I mean, the thing was parodied on the Simpsons. Multiple times.

This article that does a better job summarizing the argument against VSS than I ever will.