Use cygwin

Cygwin is a free software suite of ports of popular Linux tools and utilities to run natively under windows. Among it is a port of the cvs application. If you use cygwin, follow the Linux instructions.

Use the command-line tools

The CVS utilities are available as native Windows binaries. Get them from the CVS homepage. To use these tools, open a command window (click Start > Run..., then type 'cmd'), then enter the following commands:

rem you can use any directory in place of C:\cvs
rem replace $CVSUTILS with where you installed the cvs binary, or with
rem nothing if you added the utility to your PATH
mkdir C:\cvs
cd C:\cvs
$CVSUTILS\cvs.exe -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org login
rem enter anoncvs when prompted for a password, then hit enter
rem the below command should be on one line
$CVSUTILS\cvs.exe -z3 -d ^
      :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic checkout ^
      avalon avalon-excalibur avalon-components ^
      avalon-phoenix avalon-logkit avalon-site ^
      avalon-sandbox xml-forrest ^
        

This will take a while, depending on your connection. Go ahead and grab yourself a coffee or ten. When done, you should have checked out all Avalon sources and the most important utility libraries you need to build it (save for Apache Maven, which you should go install right now if you haven't already). For further building instructions run:

maven avalon:info              

Use TortoiseCVS

TortoiseCVS is a neat extension for the Windows Explorer which integrates CVS. Using it is real simple:

After you've created a folder where you want to check out the sources to, right-click and select CVS Checkout...:

Then, fill out the settings like in the screenshot below, and then click ok.

This checks out the avalon CVS module. Repeat this procedure for all the modules you wish to check out. See above under "CVS data" for the list of Avalon modules, or use the ViewCVS Webpage for a full list of ASF-hosted CVS modules.

Use WinCVS

WinCVS is a standalone windows application for working with CVS. It has more features than TortoiseCVS, and hence more buttons a novice is not likely to use.

After you've created a folder where you want to check out the sources to, select the Checkout module... option from the Create menu:

Then, select the "general tab" and fill out the settings like in the screenshot below:
.

Now, switch back to the first tab and fill out the settings like in the screenshot below, and then click ok.
.

This checks out the avalon CVS module. Repeat this procedure for all the modules you wish to check out. See above under "CVS data" for the list of Avalon modules, or use the ViewCVS webpage for a full list of ASF-hosted CVS modules.

Use the command-line tools

The CVS utilities are available as native linux binaries. Chances are you already have them installed. Try it by opening a console and typing 'cvs'. If you get an error along the lines of "bash: cvs: command not found", then you need to install them first. Under Debian, you can do so by opening a console window and entering the commands:

su -
# enter the root password when prompted
apt-get update
apt-get install cvs
exit
        

Under Red Hat, the commands are a little different:

su -
# enter the root password when prompted
rpm -i ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/8.0/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/cvs-1.11.2-5.i386.rpm
exit
        

The procedure is similar for other Linux distributions. Once you have these tools installed, open a command window, then enter the following commands:

# you can use any directory in place of ~/cvs
mkdir ~/cvs
cd ~/cvs
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org login
# enter anoncvs when prompted for a password, then hit enter
cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic \
      checkout avalon \
      avalon-excalibur avalon-cornerstone \
      avalon-phoenix avalon-logkit avalon-site \
      avalon-sandbox jakarta-site xml-forrest
        

This will take a while, depending on your connection. Go ahead and grab yourself a coffee or ten. When done, you should have checked out all avalon sources and the most important utility libraries you need to build it (save for Apache Ant, which you should go install right now if you haven't already).

Using Cervisia

KDE's Konqueror browser has CVS support built-in. I've never used it so I can't comment on it. See the Cervisia website for more information.