SVN vs CVS
Christopher Brooks, 28 Sep 2006
Last updated: 28 Sep 2006

I've not set up a SVN repository, I'm sure it is fairly easy. I have set up a CVS repository. Setting up CVS is very easy. If people have ssh access to the repository, then you are done. Setting up anonymous access (pserver) is not that hard. See anonymous access

Lots of people swear by SVN and swear at CVS. One issue is that I'm not so sure Eclipse supports SVN out of the box, though there is the subclipse plugin. That's what stops me from switching.

In general, one issue I've found is that people tend to jump to the newest technology for odd reasons. Yes, the CVS command line and branching mechanism sucks and SVN is "better". However, are you willing to toss access via Eclipse out of the box if you go with SVN? I'm sure there is a SVN interface to Eclipse, but why make installation even more complicated for users who are already struggling?

I think it is better to set up CVS or SVN on a Linux box than a Windows box. One issue is that the Windows so called file system is case insensitive, case preserving, which means that if under Unix there are two filenames differing only in case, then god knows what happens if the CVS or SVN server is on Windows.