Who are March Hare Software?

March Hare began in Sydney Australia in 1998 as a loose collective of expert database programmers and has grown into a worldwide firm based on our expertise in designing and building enterprise IT solutions.

March Hare Software development lab is based in Manchester UK, and iSeries development in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Why do all links to CVSNT go to March Hare Software ?

March Hare Software are the primary contributors to the CVSNT project. We co-ordinate the testing and release process as well as manage the source tree.

Where can I find March Hare Software annual reports?

March Hare Software Ltd (UK) and March Hare Pty Ltd (Australia) are not publicly traded companies and therefore do not publish annual reports.

Who are the Directors and Shareholders of March Hare?

March Hare Software Limited (UK) and March Hare Pty Ltd (Australia) are not public companies and the shareholder registry is not a matter of public record. The existing shareholders wish to remain anonymous and no additional equity is currently being sought. The share registry is closed.

The current board of directors for each company can be found through the relavent legislative authority for UK and Australian Company Registrations.

Why did March Hare Software begin charging for CVSNT?

As of June 30, 2009 the Free Software Foundation have advised that we should charge as much as we wish or can because by funding development, we can advance the world of free software:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html

March Hare Software have provided the development resources for CVSNT since 2004, including the releases: 2.0.51, 2.0.58, 2.5.01, 2.5.02, 2.5.03, 2.5.04 multi-site and the latest 2.5.05 Unicode (with advertising) release. We have done all this without charging mandatory fees as we are now being encouraged to charge by the Free Software Foundation.

In Chris Andersons book Free: The Future of a Radical Price he describes open-source projects like CVSNT as requiring a 5% take-up rate of the Premium Edition to be economical. If only one percent (1%) of people downloading CVSNT from our own web site in one (1) year bought one (1) copy of CVS Suite we could quadruple our staff and provide much more innovation.

The decision to take the advice of the Free Software Foundation as of June 30, 2010 was made for many reasons, including:

• CVSNT has many productivity features that comparable SCCM tools do not have, however:
  • People who use CVSNT Community Edition cannot identify these and do not use them primarily due to the lack of integration and documentation which has been available in CVS Suite for several years
  • The CVSNT development team need additional resources to implement even better productivity enhancements
• Continued strong demand for CVSNT, low community participation and insufficient response to our numerous requests for voluntary payments (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Feedback from the website that most people downloading CVSNT Community edition were unsatisfied because they required the features in CVS Suite (e.g.: support, reliability, documentation). i.e.: Visitors were unable to identify the correct software to download.
• Feedback from active community participants that they did not require the supplied packages because they build from source
• More below

Component parts of CVSNT (CVSAPI, CVSTOOLS, CVSFS) are licensed under the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL) which allows 3rd party plugins to be created using any available license.

March Hare Software will continue to produce such plugins under commercial license terms as well as continue to develop CVS Suite and CM Suite for customers who will or who have purchased those products.

Other Free Software (including MySQL and SVN) charge too

March Hare Software believe that MySQL and SVN projects are run well and they are great pieces of software. We also believe they have struggled with the same problems of funding future development that CVSNT has.

MySQL

Up to and including verison 3.23 of MySQL was licensed under the LGPL, however after this all future releases (including current releases) are dual licensed under GPL and a commercial license. To connect to MySQL server you must use the MySQL client library, and releases after 3.23 require that the application connecting to the server either GPLs their entire code (and the code of 3rd party plugins) or pays a license fee.

If the CVSNT project did this then it would mean that vendors of IDEs like Oracle Developer, Toad, SQL Navigator and even Eclipse (Rational Application Developer etc.) would need to pay us license fees to include CVSNT integration - even if it is not used by customers. We considered and discarded this approach.

We have also always considered that the openness of CVSNT was important - we use open protocols and with CVSNT 3.x (EVSCM) we even allow non-CVS protocols to connect to the server (SVN, WebDAV and TeamSystem). Restricting the server to only clients that are licensed in a particular way would severely alter the open nature of CVSNT.

SVN

If you are implementing a Change Management system in your organisation then the software must do a lot more than checkin/checkout. Collabnet understand this and provide a proprietary commercial solution - a very small part of which is SVN.

We considered and discarded this approach. The CVSNT Project has always striven to deliver a comprehensive change management solution - where all the business logic is open source (LGPL). This gives our customers access to the primary benefit of free software: the freedom to enhance the software and customise it to work best with their other systems and business practice. Funding the development of CVSNT means we can continue to enhance Free Software.

The research that has informed the devlopment of CVSNT from release 2.0.51 tells us that to obtain the benefits of change management the systems must do much more than check-in and check-out. If we avoided putting features like failsafe audit, user-defined change sets, file and branch level access control, token based active-directory authentication, promotion levels, multi-site redundancy etc. into the core open source engine then we would be encouraging people to do SCCM poorly where they have all the costs but few benefits. Instead we have always put these features in the core to encourage the use of SCCM best practice.

Conclusion

If you are contrasting project xyz with CVSNT we believe that weve done a poor job of explaining our initial reasons for this change in distribution.

The CVSNT project delivers SCCM functionality that no other Free and Open Source software does, and many key features appeared in CVSNT years ahead of other popular tools. The development team have many many more features we want to deliver (licensed under a Free and Open Source license) to help people manage change better, but we need more staff - and to fund this we have made these changes to the distribution model following the advice of the Free Software Foundation.

Why is SCCM with zero-dollar price tag a good thing?

Offering SCCM with a zero-dollar price tag has both advantages and disadvantages to those who write it and those who use it, this is our top list:

1. builds awareness.

This is possibly the oldest marketing trick in the book - people are reluctant to try something new so by giving it to you for zero-dollars then we reduce the barriers to entry and you are likely to try it. If the product solves problems for you or reduces your costs of doing business or increases your income then you are likely to keep using it even if other products are also offered for zero-dollars.

2. encourages use of SCCM

People who write SCCM / Version Control software generally do so because they believe that SCCM is useful. In the software industry (and IT departments of non-Software industries) the implementation of change control has traditionally been ignored because it is considered not-useful (a should do rather than helpful to do). Those that write the tools would rather be giving away copies than have them sit unused on shelves if it means that people have the opportunity to realise that the tools are not a chore but a benefit.

3. reciprocity, generosity and philanthropy

Some people will not be able to afford to purchase these tools at market rates, eg: they are students, they live in a 3rd world country, they are in a one-man dot-com startup funded by a second mortgage or the generosity of others.

Giving to these people has no net cost (because a sale was never possible) but builds a debt of reciprocity - when they are no longer students or when their business is successful they will have an ethical obligation to support those who supported them.

Regardless of how good a business idea it is to give something away - someone will never do it unless they are generous.

Why is zero-dollar price tag bad for CVSNT?

The picture that we have built up over this time indicates that whilst the benefits of a zero-dollar price tag for CVSNT may have once outweighed the disadvantages - that has not been true for a long time. Today in June of 2010 giving away copies of CVSNT causes enormous problems.

The decision to take the advice of the Free Software Foundation as of June 30, 2010 was made for many reasons, including:

• CVSNT has many productivity features that comparable SCCM tools do not have, however:
  • People who use CVSNT Community Edition cannot identify these and do not use them primarily due to the lack of integration and documentation which has been available in CVS Suite for several years
  • The CVSNT development team need additional resources to implement even better productivity enhancements
• Continued strong demand for CVSNT, low community participation and insufficient response to our numerous requests for voluntary payments (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Feedback from the website that most people downloading CVSNT Community edition were unsatisfied because they required the features in CVS Suite (e.g.: support, reliability, documentation). i.e.: Visitors were unable to identify the correct software to download.
• Feedback from active community participants that they did not require the supplied packages because they build from source

1. No up-front-cost; no benefit analysis

Many people who we speak with using CVSNT express an interest in switching to another zero-cost SCCM system in the near future. Analysis by firms such as the Configuration Management Institute and even the Financial Times show that there is an enormous cost to switching IT systems.

Clearly the cost of switching systems is being discounted due to the zero-cost of the software. Since the total cost of switching is not analysed neither is the business benefit of one tool versus another or the underlying benefits of the SCCM methodologies supported by one tool versus another.

2. Features not invested in, benefits not received

If CVSNT is chosen as the basis for an SCCM implementation without any consideration of the cost/benefit of different SCCM methodologies then there is a very high likelihood that when senior management want to implement a different SCCM methodology they will be told incorrectly that CVSNT needs to be replaced.

The failure of many people to use the advanced features of CVSNT such as failsafe auditing, merge tracking, user defined change sets (integrated with change control), Access Control Lists, Promotion Levels etc mean that when Management look for the reports that this information provide they wont find it - and will either assume or be incorrectly informed that CVSNT cannot do this.

When CVSNT is replaced with a proprietary system everyone loses out:
a) we who wrote the software and the free software community lose out on the funding that is given to some proprietary software vendor
b) the organisation loses the benefits of the freedom and flexibility of free software
c) the programmers lose out on using the tool they found lightweight and useful
d) the organisation loses out on large costs in re-training and inevitably in people working around the new system with other free software tools

3. We cannot help

For us far too many days begin with a phone call from a non-customer with a large team of people using CVSNT and they cannot get any work done due to some problem.

They patiently explain that they have paid someone else an amount of money to set the system up, or perform multi-site repository replication with proprietary software or paid someone for a proprietary graphical tool - so now they have no budget and they would like our help.

But we cannot help.

If we want our programmers to continue to work for us and the telephone company to keep the internet connected we need to pay them. If we give the software away for zero-dollars then we have to raise the money from elsewhere, almost exclusively support.

By giving the software away we are actually making it harder for people to get help - right at the point when they are experiencing the most problems is the point that we need to ask for money.

4. Insufficient funding for more great things

Many different teams create SCCM tools under Free Software licenses and we are all very aware of what each other are doing. Most SCCM features useful to commercial software developers were added to CVSNT years before they were added to other similar tools - our team of programmers and analysts have inspired many to create more useful software.

With more money our team can be more productive.

A few times in the past few years people using CVSNT have told us that they have spent their budget on graphical tools or other CVSNT add ons because they needed those features.

When we have explained that we already provide those features (or could easily have extended our products to include them) they are embarrassed that they lost the opportunity to help the team that has helped them and instead helped a team that provided nothing of value until they were first paid.

A better funded team here means better software and better tools for you.

Why dont CVSNT accept donations?

Accepting donations in most countries requires a different legal framework than how March Hare Software is incorporated. The additional costs of setting this up and administering it would far outweigh any possible benefit to the programmers, technical support and administrative team who bring CVSNT to you.

Why does March Hare charge for CVS Suite?

1.
There are many users of CVSNT who would like to contibute to the project but do not have the time to contribute to the code, documentation and testing and that for the price of the CVS Suite they can contribute and also get the benefit of some support and some great add on software for CVSNT.

2.
CVSNT and CVS Suite cost March Hare Software a lot of time and money to create. The enhanced TortoiseCVS, Workspace Manager, Release Manager and the Bugzilla and Build integrations make using CVSNT much easier which helps you be more productive.

3.
There are many people who would like to begin using version control and will benefit from the software however find it difficult to find all the information required to get started and if they do find it then it is difficult to understand or implement. CVS Suite solves this problem by matching a version of the documentation with versions of the software in a single package.

What payment methods are available for CVS Suite and CVS Professional Support

From our Online Store you can select any of our software products to purchase. All of our software is delivered by download from the customer area.

The Online Store accepts the following cards:

Can I use an American Express card to pay for CVS Suite and CVS Professional Support

Also see the following FAQs Payment Methods accepted via the online store and Tax and VAT

Tax and VAT charges when ordering online.

Can I use a Visa Purchasing card to pay for CVS Suite and CVS Professional Support

How is the TortoiseCVS included with CVS Suite different from the standard "free" version?

• Browse server for checkout of module or single file
• Edit dialog (must be enabled in preferences)
• Defect number integration on Edit, Commit and Merge
• Additional Preferences
  • Read only files on checkout regardless of watch state
  • Set ACL on edit for working with shared sandboxes
  • Edit dialog preferences
  • Disable looking for Modules file (not requried for CVSNT)
  • Eclusive editing options
  • CVS Server setting (for use with SSH)
• Improved context menu handling
• Show bug numbers in revision graph and log
• Support for CVSNT SSH secure authentication
• Is tested with the other components of CVS Suite
• Behaviour is consistent with the documentation included in CVS Suite
• Is supported by March Hare Software

What is the March Hare Software vision for CVS / CVSNT

Implementing version control effectively has a cost, but the benefits far outweighs that cost.

To see the vision come to pass we believe in making version control solutions widely available at minimum cost and tailored for use by the "average" computer user.

For version control to be effective it must ensure the integrity of all managed items in each stage of their lifecycle, make their evolution more manageable, and their interrelationship clear.

The effectiveness can be improved by implementing automated techniques for Insulation, Security and Access Control, Lifecycle Management, Communication and Detailed Reporting.

The result of using effective configuration management should include improved productivity, reduced cost of production, and shorter time to deliver completed work.

What do CVSNT Version Numbers mean (2.5.03 vs 2.5.04)

V = major architecture changes
NN = significant architecture changes
XX = feature releases
BBBB = bug fixes

Note: from 2005 zero is no longer considered a valid number (ie: EVS is 3.1 not 3.0)

Eg: 1.11 to 2.0
major architecture changes, eg: ditching C for C++

2.x to 3.1
major architecture changes, eg: ditching RCS for Relational DB.

2.5 to 2.8
significant architecture changes, eg: ditching cvsservice/xinetd

2.0 to 2.5
significant architecture changes, eg: adding pluggable triggers

2.5.03 to 2.5.04
feature releases, eg: adding support for multiple repo servers

2.5.04 to 2.5.05
feature releases, eg: windows servers now always run in unicode (unix cvsnt servers have already done this for years)

2.5.04.3236 to 2.5.04.3510
bug fixes - may be critical bug fixes

Note:

• major architecture changes - CVSROOT scripts may require rewriting
• significant architecture changes - should be carefully planned (probably to coincide with OS upgrades)
• feature releases - upgrade should always have a rollback plan
• bug fixes - you should always be running the HIGHEST build

How do March Hare Software plan development of CVS Suite and CVSNT

• Q1: July -September
• Q2: October - December
• Q3: January - March
• Q4: April - June

This direction and these goals are always guided by our overall vision for CVS / CVSNT / EVS. Our planning is high level mostly conceptual, however usually includes some specific technical targets that we feel will provide a better platform for feature growth.

Issues such as reliability and performance are always considered but are not explicitly labelled or targetted at this level.

Each quarter the targets are further refined to include specific features or respond to market conditions and customer feedback.

What releases of CVS Suite have March Hare planned for 2011/2012

The following releases of CVS Suite are planned:

• CVS Suite 2008 (2.5.03.2382 codeline) updates - 380 updates are already available - in future critical updates will be backported from CVS Suite 2009 for CVS Suite 2008 and other non-critical updates based on customer demand
• CVS Suite 2009 (2.8.01 codeline) codename Soolin initial release
  • New high performance server service improves performance of clients which issue many small commands, eg: Eclipse, SCCI etc.
  • Installation Wizard
• CVS Suite 2009R2 (2.8.01 codeline) updates
• CVS Suite 2010 (2.8.01 codeline) - minor upgrade
• CVS Suite 201? (2.8.0? codeline) - major client upgrade
  • CVS Suite Studio Team View
  • Other client upgrades
• CVS Suite 201? (2.8.0? codeline) - server upgrades
  • Improvement in cvs update performance
  • More high performance features in the high performance server service.

Should I upgrade to CVS Suite 2009R1?

The remainder of this FAQ applies to CVS Suite 2009R1 available since April 2010.

If you have any of the following software installed, we recommend you upgrade to CVS Suite 2009:

• CVS Suite 2009 Trial
• CVSNT 2.8.01.xxxx
• CVSNT 2.5.03.2382 (community edition)
• CVSNT 2.5.02.xxxx
• CVSNT 2.5.01.xxxx
• CVSNT 2.0.x (eg: 2.0.58 or 2.0.51 or 2.0.41)
• WinCVS 2.0.x or WinCVS 1.x
• TortoiseCVS 1.12, 1.10, 1.8 or 1.x

If you have any of the following software installed, we recommend you DO NOT upgrade to CVS Suite 2009:

• CVS Professional 2.5.03 (eg: 2.5.03.2757)
• CVS Suite 2008 (eg: 2.5.03.3736)
• CVSNT on HPUX or Solaris Sparc

The eBook "All About CVS" contains a detailed upgrade guide - all customers should review the upgrade planning guide before upgrading a production server.

NOTE: CVS Suite 2009 has been in Pre-Release since June 2010. This means that:

• We do NOT issue release notes for each build, just release notes for all of CVS Suite 2009.
• we recommend it for new installations, not upgrades to previous editions of CVS Suite.

During Pre-Release, the release notes for a new build can be produced by comparing the release notes for the build you have with the latest release note.

When CVS Suite moves from the status of Pre-Release to Release then:

• We issue a build specific release note for each new build
• We recommend all customers begin upgrade planning to the new release and issue an End-Of-Life plan for previous releases.

What features did March Hare Software deliver in CVSNT 2.5.05

March Hare Software delivered the following features in CVSNT 2.5.05 - this is the final release of the community edition of CVSNT:

Client:

• performance (fixed bugs in signature checks)
• ipv6 support
• cvs switch verb for changing sandbox CVSROOT when server has moved
• gserver fixes
• improved support for chinese filenames (stable release only, not in RC)

Server:

• Bug fixes

All users are advised to upgrade to CVSNT 2.8.0x (CVS Suite 2009 or later) as soon as possible to ensure the software remains up to date.

What features are March Hare Software Planning for CVSNT for Mac OS X

March Hare Software are looking to add another resource to our development team to assist in the delivery of enhancements to CVSNT for Mac OS X. Planned features include:

• Mac OS X System Preferences
• Mac OS X WorkspaceViewer
• Spotlight plugin (for repository server)
• Dashboard widget
• Sync integration

The timeframe of adding this resource will depend on growth of the CVSNT Mac community (both commercial and open source).

This plan is provided only for information. By publication of this plan March Hare Software do not warrant or guarantee these features or dates or versions in any way.

What features are March Hare Software Planning for EVS Windemere

March Hare Software are currently planning to deliver the following features in EVS Windemere (previously known as CVSNT 3.1.01):

• Atomic Commits
• Database backend (no more RCS files)
• RCS "interface" for legacy integrations
• Support for CVS/CVSNT/SVN and WebDAV clients

Additional features for EVS Windemere are planned to be announced in July 2007.

This plan is provided only for information. By publication of this plan March Hare Software do not warrant or guarantee these features or dates or versions in any way.

What priority do March Hare apply to support requests.

The severity levels are:

• Repository corruption
• Server Security
• Workspace corruption
• Server crash (core dump)
• Client crash (core dump)
• General Faults / Installation
• CVSNT client compatibility
• Non CVSNT client compatibility
• Enhancements
• Platform support

Can I move my version history from Visual SourceSafe, PVCS, ClearCase or Perforce to CVSNT?

Visual Source Safe, PVCS, ClearCase and Perforce are each excellent version control solutions each with many features, and each with unique features.

CVSNT is not an emulator designed to replace any of them. However these tools solve problems generally defined by the phrases version control and configuration management, and those are the same problems that CVSNT is designed to solve. Therefore in some situations it may be possible to switch one for the other and have very little impact on your business.

How many people use CVSNT?

Gartner research has published statistics in the past on Software Configuration Management Market Share based on license revenue, however we have been unable to find any research done based on use in the field.

Most other industry analysts use this same approach (eg: Worldwide Software Configuration Management Tools 2004 Vendor Shares", #204821, December 2006 [previously #33588, June 2005] by IDC). This research appears designed to assist vendors and investors in determining how much money is available in the marketplace for these tools and to which vendor the majority of the money is going. The research does not benefit the person who is choosing a tool based on popularity (in use by many people on a day to day basis) or effectiveness (has achieved productivity and reliability gains that software configuration management is designed to). In particular the studies:

• give a natural preference to software which is costly over software which is economical
• does not account at all for software implemented without a license cost
• provide a market share benefit to companies which sell software which is then later replaced due to implementation difficulties.

Gartner research have given us a quote for performing some study based on use in the field, however no budget has been allocated to fund this in 2005/2006. Furthermore it would not be possible to publish the results of this study since Gartner require a signed non-disclosure agreement from any person who views it or information distilled from it.

Built / executable copies of CVSNT are included in TortoiseCVS and WinCVS and also downloaded from the main March Hare web site. From these sites roughly 30,000 copies per week are downloaded. This does not include copies of CVSNT which are built from source in the "traditional open source" way or copies of any version which is in development or test (unstable).

The best research we have is incidental and that indicates that CVSNT is the most widely adopted versioning tool in use in the Software Development industry today.

Can I integrate CVSNT with some other software

March Hare Software can assist you in integrating your application with CVSNT by:

• Access to the CVSNT Development Manager, Product Manager and other technical staff
• Code samples of how to implement integration
• Features to make integrating easier
• Write the integration on your behalf

If your project is open source licensed (GPL or similar) then your best approach is to send a request for development assistance to the open source CVSNT newsgroup. To contact the newsgroup you can subscribe here or if you have a news browser installed you can click here.

If your project is commercially licensed or you wish for March Hare Software to provide some assistance then you will need to have a Professional Support contract. The correct level contract will depend on the amount of assistance you require, contact a sales representative for more information.

Can I create multiple synchronised repositories with CVSNT

March Hare Software have our own repository hosted in UK, Australia and the USA. A sales consultant will be able to assist you further.

Why do March Hare collect so much information when I download CVSNT?

The page http://march-hare.com/downloads/ is the only place you can download the community editions and the evaluation edition of UD6 because these installers require a product key to install and the main download page automatically will e-mail you this key.

The source code for CVSNT community editions can be downloaded from the project repository - see the project web site for details.

Are the commercial releases of CVS Suite the same as the free CVSNT?

The changes in the community editions of CVSNT are driven by the requirements of the open source developers, whereas the changes in the CVS Suite are driven by our customers. Features only available in CVS Suite include:

• CVS Suite High Performance Server Service
• Bugzilla, Mantis and Atlassian Jira Integration
• Multi-Site unison synchronisation
• Visual Studio Integration (SCCI)
• CVS Suite Studio - Graphical CVS Client
• Release Manager
• Install Guide / eBook
• Using CVS Suite with Eclipse guide
• Using CVS Suite with SQL Navigator and Oracle Guide

Generally this CVSNT Community Edition supports newer versions of Open Source Linux libraries and has cutting edge experimental features, and the CVS Suite works with and is tested with Commercial Linux, Windows and Unix distributions and is more stable and has features commercial software developers require.

Between CVSNT 2.0.51 and CVSNT 2.5.02 we did try and keep the two releases very similar - however from CVSNT 2.5.03 it became clear that the community of open source developers wanted to use much newer technologies (like libxml2 versus expat) than most commercial operating systems supported.

The source code for all versions of CVSNT are available from the CVSNT repository, and all builds are available at some time from the open source web site. However the open source CVSNT web site only keeps one build of CVSNT available at any time. Open source developers can "checkout" any version from the repository and build it at any time.

March Hare Software provide five levels of commercial support, and all levels have access to the latest software at the time of purchase.

Silver, Gold and Platinum Annual Software Maintenance and Support customers have access to the entire history of stable and patched releases of CVS Suite.

CVS Suite (no Annual Software Maintenance and Support) customers have access to the latest stable and patched versions at the time of purchase.

All Annual Software Maintenance and Support customers receive patched versions of CVSNT as frequently as every fortnight (but not usually so - since there are many fortnights with no bugs reported).

All CVS Suite customers also receive some plugins and client applications which are not licensed under the GPL and are not available for free. The source code for these is not available in the CVSNT repository.

Conversely not all versions of CVSNT are made available to professional and basic support customers. Releases of CVSNT made to customers undergo additional quality assurance and release procedures.

The following data was generated using David A. Wheelers SLOCCount:

• TOTAL SUITE CODE: 794,361 lines
• DIRECTLY FROM CVSNT PROJECT: 443,003 (56%) lines
• AVAILABLE IN SUITE ONLY (NON-GPL): 35,324 (4%) lines