What versioning system do you suggest for my website?

Question

I'm an absolute newbie when it comes down to subversion and SVN (don't even know the difference). As I'm developing a pretty big website I'm looking for a way to take care of different versions (PHP, CSS, JavaScript files and MySQL database) and to make backups. I would like to use a web based system so I have an external backup. I'm not working in a team on this project, so features around this are not necessary. I'm working on Windows Vista. At this moment I zip my files and and upload them to box.net. But I'm sure there are better ways to accomplish this. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Subversion (aka SVN) and http://tortoisesvn.net/

TortoiseSVN is an easy to use SCM / source control software for Microsoft Windows and maybe the best standalone Subversion client there is. It is implemented as a Windows shell extension, which makes it integrate seamlessly into the Windows explorer. Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like.

You aren't required to even have the subversion repository off of your own machine - though backing it up is more important since you still depend on the safety of your own hard drive.

Answer 2

I recommend git.

Some people say it's difficult for newbies, but I don't think that's true at all. I got up to speed with it in no time by just following the official tutorial, and I'm really a beginner when it comes to version control.