Subversion packages exist for a number of different operating systems. Remember, once you have it installed, most of your questions can be answered by reading the Subversion Book.
The latest source release can be found in this directory, in the file-sharing area of the Subversion website. Be sure to read the general instructions for building from the source tarball, and the specific instructions within the source code itself.
Maintainer: David Summers
RPMs for Redhat 7.X (i386): http://summersoft.fay.ar.us/pub/linux/redhat/RPMS/i386/subversion-latest/redhat-7.x/
RPMs for Redhat 8.X (i386): http://summersoft.fay.ar.us/pub/linux/redhat/RPMS/i386/subversion-latest/redhat-8.x/
Maintainer: David Kimdon
Information on the latest .deb packages for Debian Unstable ('sid') can be found here: http://packages.debian.org/subversion.
If you are running Debian unstable, just run 'apt-get install subversion'.
Maintainer: Olaf Hering
RPM packages for various older SuSE Linux versions: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/poeml/
A list of available mirror sites can be found here: http://www.suse.de/en/private/download/ftp/int_mirrors.html
Maintainer: Craig Rodrigues
Information about the latest port can be found here:http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/devel/subversion/.
Assuming your ports tree is up-to-date, just 'cd /usr/ports/devel/subversion; make install'.
Maintainer: Christian Schaffner
Information about the latest Fink package can be found here: http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/svn-client/.
Just run 'fink install svn-client'.
Maintainer: Branko Cibej
The latest command-line binaries and libraries for Windows can be found in this directory of the file-sharing area. The packages are ".zip" files.
Maintainer: Jostein Andersen
The same command-line binaries and libraries, but packaged within a friendly Installer program, are in the same directory of the file-sharing area, but end with "-setup.exe".
Maintainer: Steve King
If you want a pretty Win32 GUI, TortoiseSVN integrates nicely with the Windows Explorer.