The traditional interface available for CVS is the command-line client. There has also been a slew of GUI client applications that can "talk" to a CVS server. These GUI clients provide a "point and click" interface to the CVS repository.
This paper recommends using such GUI clients during the initial deployment of CVS in an organization.
Developers typically use integrated development environments that have the CM tools integrated into them. These tools minimize the learning for the developers about the intricacies of CVS usage and instead allow them to be productive from day one. Developers who are accustomed to other CM tools will find the CVS command-line interface daunting. The adoption and usage of CVS can be improved by using GUI tools for CVS clients.
GUI tools for CVS are available at http://cvsgui.sourceforge.net/. GUI interfaces are available for most of the popular platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). In addition, on the Windows platform there is an SCC extension that allows integration of CVS as the configuration control tool with popular IDE.