Git: The Lean, Mean, Distributed Machine

Another advantage of DVCS that wasn't mentioned in the slide deck is that, with git (and other DVCSes), you are <i>always</i> working in a revision controlled arena. Git's got your back.<p>When I used RCS, I was always working in a revision controlled arena - all my changes were revision controlled, assuming I checked them in... and after the first or second disaster, I learned to <i>check things in.</i> Frequently.<p>When I used CVS/SVN, I lost the ability to always work in a revision controlled arena (theoretically I still had the ability, but doing it was such a hassle that it simply did not happen). I ended up checking out a copy from SVN and then locally revision controlling my changes in RCS. Ugly.<p>Working without git is like driving without seat belts. You can do it and probably nothing bad will happen... but if something bad <i>does</i> happen, it is the difference between walking away a bit sore and an extended hospital visit.

Can anyone compare Git vs Mercurial? This decision is coming up for us, and would appreciate the input.

This is a good introduction to Git. Some of the pictures chosen to illustrate points are hilarious, like the smoking angel, or the RCS shack.

84MB download for a dia show of cc eye-catching but nevertheless offtopic images. Wow! Sometimes I really wish people would stick to that dull bullet points style of presentation -- in at least half of their slides.

15:00 Zulu time: URL is down for me: Error: 500.<p>Will check later.

One thing I dislike about the presentation is it does not give credit where credit is due. BitMover wrote BitKeeper (I use it atm at work) which was the predecessor of mercurial and git. Naturally there were issues with being proprietary till it pissed off the right people causing them to create a new VCS based on BK. BitKeeper is... pretty damn slow compared to Git. But it was the innovation.<p>Also if he mentioned clearcase's performance it would be obvious that Clearcase is a hut made out of good intentions (we didnt even use sticks at that point).