cvs checkout was removed from the context menu's due to this:  
http://www.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=51773   
  
This makes netbeans 4.1 a total pain in the ass to use with cvs when working  
closely with several other developers. It means you now have to use Update  
which overwrites any locally modified files or breaks them with bad auto  
merging, or the global checkout in which you have to fill in all the values  
making it all very tedious. We need to be able to checkout individual files,  
dirctories or modules. 
  
Please put checkout back into the context menu or at least allow users to  
enable it if they want to. It has been there for several years, seemingly  
without issue. I'm amazed that it was removed so swiftly due to 1 bug report  
which has only 1 vote.