SCCS
Shares rank 22 of 26 version control systems by recommenders
Old Unix version control system, recommended for tracking file history and comparing document versions. Critics say it handled collaborative development and merges poorly compared with current tools.
Old Unix version control system, recommended for tracking file history and comparing document versions. Critics say it handled collaborative development and merges poorly compared with current tools.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Viewing differences and history between versions
“help lawyers and law professionals easily view the differences between document versions”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Legal Contract Version Control” “I use it only for browsing history.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Interleaved Deltas”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weaker merging and collaboration than current tools
“SCCS handled collaborative development and merges a lot worse than anything current”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “The lost cause of the Lisp machines”
Other version control systems people recommend
The four most recommended other version control systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Git | 814 | 503 | 62% | 13 | 15 yrs42 owners | — |
| Jujutsu (jj) | 335 | 106 | 76% | 13 | 1 yr21 owners | Approved |
| Mercurial | 121 | 43 | 74% | 12 | 19 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| jj (Jujutsu) | 115 | 37 | 76% | 12 | 1 yr7 owners | Approved |
| SCCSThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they all sucked one way or another”
“help lawyers and law professionals easily view the differences between document versions”
“I use it only for browsing history.”
“Killed themselves after using it for fifteen minutes.”
“Having lived through sccs, pvcs, SourceSafe, Clearcase and svn (among others)”
“I had used both at work up until around 2005”
“SCCS handled collaborative development and merges a lot worse than anything current”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.