Subversion, once installed, has a number of different pieces. The following is a quick overview of what you get. Don't be alarmed if the brief descriptions leave you scratching your head—there are plenty more pages in this book devoted to alleviating that confusion.
The command-line client program.
A program for reporting the state (in terms of revisions of the items present) of a working copy.
A tool for inspecting a Subversion repository.
A tool for creating, tweaking or repairing a Subversion repository.
A program for filtering Subversion repository dump streams.
A plug-in module for the Apache HTTP Server, used to make your repository available to others over a network.
A custom standalone server program, runnable as a daemon process or invokable by SSH; another way to make your repository available to others over a network.
Assuming you have Subversion installed correctly, you should be ready to start. The next two chapters will walk you through the use of svn, Subversion's command-line client program.