Subversion has been steadily gaining popularity over the last couple of years. It was introduced in
mid 2001 as the ("better") alternative to CVS.I began using it today and am fairly impressed with its feature.

• Directory versioning - Versioning directory trees as opposed to just files (as in CVS)


• True version history - includes tracking file rename, copying


• Atomic Commits - appears to be the most popular. Roll backs entire commit if any section in the logical chunk fails the commit.


• Versioned metadata - You can create your own property key value pair. e.g. list of authors of sub section in the file. ChapterfooAuthor=foo, ChapterBarAuthor=bar...etc


• Choice of network layers - Offers a wider option of network access layer. Pluggable into Apache HTTP Server and accessible over SSH Tunnel. This is interesting because users can now create Web Application to update the repository as opposed to just view available with web cvs

The documentation bundled with the install is an excellent guide.