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
• a shared representation of the information, structured to let emerge consistent configurations

-- MarcGirod - 08 Aug 2007