FAQ: What are the general benefits of using a version control system?

First, the terminology mess disclaimer: what do you mean by a VCS?
Some replies given in comp.software.config-mgmt:

• less error prone than doing manual version control
• changes to sources tracked, so that one can check at any point in time who did what and why
• history can't be changed anymore. I forgot what was meant by this, and whether this was thought as a good or a bad thing. Anyway, it strikes as obviously false. History is only written afterwards, and changed as often as needed. What cannot be changed is ...the data itself, what is often naively termed, the facts, although facts are made, and selected. But there are indeed some constraints which cannot (easily) be ignored, and must thus be acknowledged, explained, taken into consideration. Written history (objectively represented) is easier to change than rumour, which can never be killed with confidence. This is one good thing with SCM.
• a shared representation of the information, structured to let emerge consistent configurations

-- MarcGirod - 08 Aug 2007