by Mike Gunderloy ========================================================= Looking for a change management tool that can handle a sizeable cross-platform development effort? Surround SCM should be on your short list to consider. This product contains just about every CM feature you can think of, and scales to handle large numbers of files and users just fine. I worked with a late beta of version 3.1, and was favorably impressed. Surround SCM lets you run its clients or servers on Windows, Linux, Solaris, or Mac OS X. They're all first-class citizens; you have your choice of GUI or command-line clients on all platforms, and the clients and servers can all talk to each other via TCP; you only have to open up a few ports to enable SCM around the world. I looked at the Windows version, which comes with a JRE to handle the included Guiffy java-based diff/merge utility. Setup installs both a license server and the actual SCM server (unless you already have a Seapine license server on your network from another product such as their TestTrack Pro bug-tracking solution). Getting licenses, users, repositories, and main branches set up is fairly straightforward, though you’ll want to read the documentation carefully to avoid frustration (for example, you may find yourself with users that can’t log in if you skip a step). Read this complete review