I am evaluating VisualSVN for me and a small team of developers. I set it up on the server (VisualSVN server) without problems and installed TortoiseSVN and VisualSVN in order to integrate it in Visual Studio 2008. So far, it works well and we use it for the development of our main application.
I've heard good things about the new version of AnkhSVN too, which is open source and free. Since we are at the beginning with Subversion, I want to make the right decision now.
Is it possible to switch from VisualSVN to AnkhSVN without too many hassles? Can I keep the VisualSVN Server installation or do I have to switch that too? Is TortoiseSVN obsolete if I start using AnkhSVN? And, is the current version reliable in Visual Studio 2008?
To be clear: it's not about the 50 US$ per developer. It's about making the right decision for the future. What do you recommend?
Many thanks in advance!
Best Answer
We did precisely that: switched from VisualSVN to AnkhSVN. The move went without any trouble at all. These plugins do not store specific information, and the .svn (or _svn) hidden folders are compatible with any svn client.
The 1.x series of the Ankh plugin was awful: lots of crashes and annoyances (for example, it was very hard to move or rename a not-still-commited file). The 2.x series corrects most of the problems, and while it still does not attains the level of VisualSVN, I found it very sufficient for our uses (and very free).
About the migration in itself, it couldn't be more simple: we just uninstalled VisualSVN, and installed Ankh. As long as your directory is under source control, it works.
The only common thing is that you still need TortoiseSVN to do many things, be them advanced tasks, or more basic ones: it's much simpler to create working directories and to checkout within explorer than with Visual Studio.