subversion

Subversion describes itself as "a compelling replacement for CVS". It's version control, check in, check out, track the changes, roll it back, maintain branches, all of that, and therefore only of interest to groups of programers or individuals with complex projects.

Or maybe not: here's someone who has his entire computer environment (well, just about) under subversion's control. He says (http://kitenet.net/~joey/svnhome.html):

I have not lost a file since 1999. And I don't intend to, ever
again. Take one crucial file, like my resume or sent-mail archive.
I have a copy of that file on my desktop computer in the .svn
directory. There's another copy on my home directory on my laptop,
and yet another copy in the subversion repository on my server
thousands of miles away. I'm told that the best backups are done
without effort -- so you actually do them -- and are widely scattered
among many machines and a lot of area -- so a local disaster doesn't
knock them out -- and are tested on a regular basis -- to make sure
the backup works. I'm doing all of these things, as a mere side
effect of keeping it all in subversion. To complete the picture,
I only have to be sure to take very careful backups of my subversion
repository itself. The automated distributed backups via svn keep
me sleeping quietly at night -- I know that no matter what I do my
life will still be there, safe and secure in svn.
 

Now there's an interesting thought.. anyway, Subversion has a great FAQ that will probably answer any questions that might spring up.

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