Another look at CVS

You can look at anything from different angles, and that goes double for software. CVS is one of the most widely used tools for source control, and many open-source and commercial
 projects use it. In his article The downsides of CVS , Michal Kára looks for the most pressing

problems and shortcomings in CVS.

I’d disagree with the author on a few points. Managing binary files isn’t what bothers users 
 most. I think CVS is best suited to managing
 source files, or text files more generally. By their nature, binary files don’t lend themselves to the same treatment 
 as text files. You can’t merge or compare them by their contents. What would be the point,
 anyway?

Like the author, I find other limitations worse, such as renaming files and directories or removing directories.
 As someone in the comments aptly noted, refactoring the directory structure is almost impossible. Another drawback,
 or at least nuisance, is synchronizing across branches. Anyone who’s tried switching from one branch 
 to another with an update on a large project knows what I mean.

If that sounds alarming, I should add that a good GUI client such as 
 WinCVS makes everyday operations such as update, commit and diff fairly straightforward. Even beginners 
 can get the hang of it quickly. CVS certainly has some rough edges
 and some outright bugs, but it’s hard to beat for the price.