Dev tool switchup
So, I've pretty much recently gone from working on an almost entirely MS based dev evironment to one based completely on open-source tools, and I gotta say, I can't believe I ever worked any other way. Using SVN as a version control system has by far the best of the shift. I can see how the copy-modify-merge system is much better than a lock-modify-unlock system, but I guess it takes a little more brain power to see how merges need to properly occur. Still, in my former role as the Human Content Management System™, it would have been absolutely essential, and quite frankly could have freed up about 70% of the time I spent trying to manually merge my trunk changes into the more frequently updated live branch, and vice-versa.
What I should have done, if I had the foresight, was manage my own trunk and branch builds on my local machine and merged there, then checked into VSS. I could have saved myself a buttload of trouble and come off looking like a fucking champ. Ahh, if only I had known.