Source control is a must. If you're working with a large team, source control technologies that include PVCS, Merant VM, or Microsoft Visual Source Safe won't work. The check in / check out features in these technologies place locks on particular files. If team members ever leave work without checking code back in, this will cause major headaches. Also, developers don't have the ability to work on the same source and merge the code back in.
I'm a big fan of Subversion (SVN) or CVS. Developers are free to work on any source code file they need to. When two or more developers work on the same file, they can perform a merge to resolve any conflicts.
When using source control technologies, your developers must always provide comments each time they make a new commit to the source control repository. Without this, you may as well just dump the source control software.
Developers not commenting? Bad bad bad, have them follow standards. Perform code reviews if necessary.
I have experience working with open sourced technologies and frameworks as well as Microsoft technologies and frameworks. While Microsoft shops are nice, and while developing applications using their tools and technologies are also pretty convenient, you can't be a true guru without mastery of open sourced technologies or frameworks. Developing with open sourced tools require you to really figure out the underworkings of how it all works. Configurations are usually done with XML, and often times if you come across a problem, you'll have to really dig and while this could be time consuming, you learn a lot.
Microsoft, on the other hand, since you pay for licensing, issues and problems are usually well documented and you can find a solution easier on the net than with open sourced problems. You could also call up support as well. Configurations are done with nice little wizards, no need to really do the grunt work.
I'd recommend you to do what you really prefer. Yeah the money's nice, and commute also plays a big role in any decision, but if you make a decision based on what you'd like to do from a software development perspective, you'll be happy. My commute to my job is an hour and fifteen minutes, but I still enjoy it better than any other job I've had in the past.
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Source control is a must. If you're working with a large team, source control technologies that include PVCS, Merant VM, or Microsoft Visual Source Safe won't work. The check in / check out features in these technologies place locks on particular files. If team members ever leave work without checking code back in, this will cause major headaches. Also, developers don't have the ability to work on the same source and merge the code back in. I'm a big fan of Subversion (SVN) or CVS. Developers are free to work on any source code file they need to. When two or more developers work on the same file, they can perform a merge to resolve any conflicts. When using source control technologies, your developers must always provide comments each time they make a new commit to the source control repository. Without this, you may as well just dump the source control software. Developers not commenting? Bad bad bad, have them follow standards. Perform code reviews if necessary.
I have experience working with open sourced technologies and frameworks as well as Microsoft technologies and frameworks. While Microsoft shops are nice, and while developing applications using their tools and technologies are also pretty convenient, you can't be a true guru without mastery of open sourced technologies or frameworks. Developing with open sourced tools require you to really figure out the underworkings of how it all works. Configurations are usually done with XML, and often times if you come across a problem, you'll have to really dig and while this could be time consuming, you learn a lot. Microsoft, on the other hand, since you pay for licensing, issues and problems are usually well documented and you can find a solution easier on the net than with open sourced problems. You could also call up support as well. Configurations are done with nice little wizards, no need to really do the grunt work. I'd recommend you to do what you really prefer. Yeah the money's nice, and commute also plays a big role in any decision, but if you make a decision based on what you'd like to do from a software development perspective, you'll be happy. My commute to my job is an hour and fifteen minutes, but I still enjoy it better than any other job I've had in the past.