The current file based repository browsing is useful for finding the history of a specific file, but doesn't help much in finding out what changed when. In addition, the multi-column layout makes it harder to locate a specific entry.

Example: [http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/cvs/]

  *  linear, sorted list
  *  revision of head
  *  time of last commit, color coded for ease of use
  *  author and commit message of last commit

Another example: [http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base/]

  *  List the same data for each directory, e.g. the last time something in this directory tree changed.