First off, I don't expect tbamud to up and switch VCSs, but I would like to try to get you guys to at least try it- or if you are already familiar with it, perhaps share your own experiences...
Everywhere I look, more people have been switching to GIT as a version control system. As I run Linux as my main OS, I follow a number of projects and I see a lot more open collaboration from members of communities. Many sites like github or bitbucket (and quite a few others) allow anyone to quickly setup their own repositories. Branching becomes a whole new ballgame, and sending bug fixes upstream becomes a whole lot nicer.
Differences
SVN is one repo and lots of clients. GIT is a repo with lots of client repos, each with a user. It's decentralised to a point where people can track their own edits locally without having to push things to an external server.
SVN is designed to be more central where GIT is based on each user having their own GIT repo and those repos push changes back up into a central one. For that reason, GIT gives individuals better local version control.
Then, with your own local master, you can make whats called a pull request to the upstream project. the project maintainer can review at the code and merge it at their own discretion.
Familiarities (or lack thereof)
Switching from SVN to GIT takes some (for some people, alot of) getting used to. The whole decentralized approach of repository management at first may seem daunting. Also, commands like like
checkout in GIT, does
not do the same as an
svn checkout.
Try it and Learn
Try setting up a repo at a free hosting site and play with it.
git-scm.com/
(GIT's home) has amazing resources: online simulation tutorial, amazing
online documentation
(html) or the book
Pro Git
, available online. There's also links to download the
full book (
for free!, no hooks or fine print) in a number of formats (.pdf, mobi and ePub).
