What is the difference between serena dimensions & PVCS ..Are they both same or are they the prodcut of different owner?
There is no link between the two technically. They are two very different tools that are owned by the same company Serena. Dimensions is a high end tool with a Database backend that is much more powerful than PVCS Version Manager which is a older file based sustem.
There is a long history with both of these tools but I won't get into that and muddy the water.
Yeah what Joe said:
PVCS/VM came from "Polytron" (The P in PVCS) via Intersolve ==> Merant ==> Serena
(Plus possibly a few others on the way)
Various other bits & bobs got packaged into PVCS Professional (which also had nothing much to do with PVCS/VM)
Dimensions came from somewhere else (into Merant ?)
where PVCS was tacked onto the name - Because PVCS was well known (and "respected" ????)
And they were (sort of) trying to show/imply an "upgrade path" from VM to Dimensions (rather than a totally new product implementation.)
When Serena "merged" with Merant the name "ChangeMan" was shoehorned into both products.
"ChangeMan" was up to this point an entirely different Serena VM Product (or maybe a couple of products).
At some point someone realised that calling everything "ChangeMan" was the worst of all worlds as "The Faithfull" who knew and loved (or at least could work with) PVCS/VM and Dimensions (PVCS or otherwise) didn't really care about having a new Name.
And the great unwashed either didn't want or had never heard of ChangeMan....
So PVCVS/VM came back and kept the Serena pre-fix.....
Disclaimer - This is a lighthearted & tounge in cheek explanation (albeit roughly accurate)
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