Source/Version control, GUI based?

[gregulator]

Has anyone used a free content management system that they like that has a nice GUI front end? I have used CVS, SVN with tortoise but I am looking for something that would be more user friendly for a wide variety of people and documents. I have used Surround SCM from Seapine, and really liked it since it was easy to show people how to use it, but it costs too much for a small company. I see there are a few projects like this for SVN (RapidSVN) on the wiki page, but does anyone have experience with them and can offer insights?

Basically, I want to keep source control for our software. But also want a common interface for all company files. I definitely don't want/need a Clear Case/Quest solution that can peek into files and create all sorts of crazy traceability matrices, I really just want something dumb that stores versions of documents in a repository. But one that is not accessible through explorer.

All machines are Windows based. Thanks for any insights!

[BrightCandle]

In the past I have never had an issue teach someone how to use the Tortoise interface, entire companies have happily adopted it. You may not think its very user friendly but it is easily understood quite quickly as almost everyone only needs checkout, update, add, commit.

[mosco]

Does it 100% have to be free? Could you afford something like Github?

We use Bithub and Github. They provide free basic clients on windows, linux, and the mac. I use SourceTree(and the command line tool) which is amazing, but it's Mac only.

Git is extremely powerful, but there is an initial learning curve. I think the official clients try to hide that complexity though. I almost always use the command line though, so I don't have that much experience with them besides SourceTree(which isn't dumbed down).

[Ka0t1x]

Syntevo makes free products..

http://www.syntevo.com/index.html

They have "pay" options but the basic features are free.

[gregulator]

Originally Posted by BrightCandle

In the past I have never had an issue teach someone how to use the Tortoise interface, entire companies have happily adopted it. You may not think its very user friendly but it is easily understood quite quickly as almost everyone only needs checkout, update, add, commit.

I feel like a visual representation of a vault is easier for people to use rather than than shell/explorer integration.

It doesn't have to be 100% free, but I don't think we are going to push our source control to remote servers. We are going to keep it local.

[sourceninja]

http://atlassian.com/software/sourcetree/overview + git

[beginner99]

I use mercurial and as GUI

http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/

but there are also GUIs for Git.

[gregulator]

Sourcetree looks like Mac only.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will play around with Mercurial and TortoiseHg and see how that goes.

[sourceninja]

Originally Posted by gregulator

Sourcetree looks like Mac only.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will play around with Mercurial and TortoiseHg and see how that goes.

Sorry, I thought sourcetree had a windows client, looks like I was wrong. Mercurial is a nice tool, you can't go wrong really with any choice.

[DannyBoy]

Originally Posted by beginner99

I use mercurial and as GUI

http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/

but there are also GUIs for Git.

Mercurial is equivalent to Git with no arms and one leg