Although there are already some graphical tools for VCSes it's still not always very easy to manage them. You have to launch a separate program or use the console.
I suggest to add an submenu to the context menu of folders in Nautilus which allows you to make it a(n) SVN/Bazaar/CVS/Git/Mecurial/etc repository or checkout one(if the folder is empty). When you're browsing a local version of the repository Nautilus should detect this and show an extra toolbar with buttons for updating, committing and checking the current status.