Think of Subversion as a wiki-like repository for your files. Each time you make a change to a file or group of files that you're happy with, you can commit those changes to your Subversion repository. If you don't like where the changes got you, Subversion can compare your current version with any previously-committed version and pick out the best of the best so you never have to worry about finding your way back to a good or working version of a file.
In this first of my two-part Subversion series, I'll show you how to set up and run your own Subversion server. Next week, we'll get into the nitty gritty of using Subversion.
