> Do I understand correctly that subversion / tortoisesvn is a > directory based system and tortoisecvs is a file based system Not as such. However, there are a number of operations - renaming a directory under source conrol, amongst others - that Subversion handles more gracefully than CVS. The Subversion Book (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/index.html) does explain, somewhat, how they differ, in particular: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.intro.html And http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.forcvs.html Though the later is primarily for experienced CVS users. > Other then that is one easier to use for a newcomer to > versioning software? If ease of use is your only criterion, I would say "Use SVN". If you need to know about systems you'll come across, CVS might be a better bet, but it would still be good to know SVN. SVN is the newer system, and offers more flexibility.