Command line utilities are great for one-pointed tasks or for batch processing, but sometimes you just want to browse around and quickly play with the options. For that purpose I prefer to use GUI-tools.

In ubuntu you can use the svn-workbench as an GUI-Client written in python to subversion repositories. I am using KDE, so installing kdesvn (also see kde-apps.org) gives me a repository access and management functions right in my Konqueror file browser by using addresses like: ksvn+https://rcs.somehost.de/rep1. In this way you can work in repositories without explicit checkout. The only draw back appears in case you want to copy directories. Due to Konquerors way of copying/moving with KIO you will be asked for log messages for each single subdir or file recursively. To avoid being asked for log messages every time start kdesvn, go to Main Menu Settings – Configure Kdesvn – KIO/Commandline – check KIO operations use standard logmessage .

Kdesvn adds extra functions in Konqueror’s context menu : RightClick – Actions – Subversion . Kate and QuantaPlus Integration is also provided by kdesvn.

BTW: Subclipse is a good svn GUI client implementation as well, but requires an Eclipse installation.