Is there a fundamental difference between backups and version control?

Question

How does version control differ from plain backups?

Let\'s forget about the feature decoration, and concentrate on the soul of version control. Is there a clear line

Answer 1

At it's basic level there is no difference between version control and backups. A version control system is an incremental backup of every change that is made. A basic, non distributed VCS, like CVS used by one developer will simply create a backup of every change that is made to a text file.

Where version control moves beyond basic backups is in the additional tools that are provided to compare versions, merge changes made by multiple developers, tag versions for release or testing and conduct other operations that make managing these separate versions possible.