Welcome to The Drive, a new weekly column looking at some wacky, interesting, cool, and pivotal things within the tech space! I'll also highlight anything noteworthy from XDA reviews published in the week.
Git is a simple distributed version control system but has proven to be invaluable in modern software development. The tool is used frequently worldwide for collaborating on projects, tracking file changes, and managing source code regardless of team size. Anyone can participate in the development of open software, which makes resources such as Giuthub so popular for easy access and powerful feature sets. I'm a huge proponent of free and open-source software, something that Git and its respective online platforms such as Github largely cater to.
The incredible history of Git
Linux creator Linus Torvalds is the brains behind Git and started developing the tool in 2005 after the Linux free license for BitKeeper was revoked. BitKeeper was similar to what Git would eventually become, but Torvalds worked on a few goals of his own, namely the distribution model for the repository, the use of cryptographic hashes for data integrity, and efficiency for quick project management and the ability to scale for larger projects. It had to be good enough to scale with the development of Torvalds' kernel. Essentially, with Git, it all started with Linux.
Git was initially benchmarked recording patches to the Linux kernel tree at a rate of 6.7 patches per second. Although primarily designed for the development of Linux, Git officially supports all major operating systems, including FreeBSD, macOS, and Windows. This is how it can facilitate the development of cross-platform software. Git could be hosted by anyone, recording the progress of local projects with full distribution and tracking. To make things more accessible, Git repositories opened up as online services where projects could be quickly hosted and worked on.
GitHub is one such service, created in 2008 and was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. Git became the most popular source code management tool as early as 2014 and today continues to hold the most market share, according to published reports. Almost two decades on and Git continues to be developed and improved upon, further cementing its place as the go-to development tool for collaborative work.
Okay, so what exactly is Git?
Being a distributed version control system (DVCS), the primary objective is to provide a means for participants to easily track and make changes to source code through development. Git allows all developers to hold a full copy of the repository, including the history of file changes, which makes Git projects incredibly easy to branch, fork, and merge. Conflicts are minimal through these processes and can be easily addressed. Having a detailed history of all changes made to the project allows anyone to easily parse through and check and compare versions, regardless of how late they were added to the project.
This is one of the highlights of Git, making it seamless for anyone to work on the same project as others and helping bridge the gap between amateurs and professionals. Participating and committing changes to a Git project is a less daunting prospect for those getting to grips with their coding knowledge. Git projects are fantastic for seeing how more experienced developers handle issues. It's powerful too with Git being the main platform for the Linux Kernel team, a high-traffic project requiring considerable resources.
And because everyone can hold an offline copy of the entire project repository, you don't always require internet access to work on improvements to the code. Committing and tracking can be carried out offline, which is great for remote work and quickly writing some lines between locations. Torvalds created Git to be lightweight and fast, which is still true today as the tool remains one of the most popular DVCS solutions for software development. But Git can do much more than track software development. People are using Git for documents, web development, and other uses.
As for the name, well ... take your best guess. Torvalds joked about naming it after himself. "Git" is British slang for idiot or stupid. It could also stand for global information tracker (GIT), but it's all personal preference. Simply, Git should suffice.
4 reasons you should use Git for productivity, even if you aren't a developer
Git isn't just for developers, there's a reason you might want to use it for your local projects.
Git continues to foster collaborative development
Being able to simultaneously work on different branches of code, streamlining the merging and committing processes, and allowing almost anyone with net access to contribute to their favorite projects has made Git and its hosted services vital to the future of software. As we navigate through hybrid and fully remote work environments, having such tools available in the PC world has allowed the continuation of development even through turbulent times. This native support for branching has enabled these services to provide easy release and hotfix management.
Consider an open-source software project with the primary master branch for production-ready code deployment. This can be followed by the development branch for ongoing code changes. Feature branches can be relied upon for a specified feature, which can then be merged into the development branch. Release branches can provide a bridge between develop and master branches. Finally, we have hotfix branches to quickly release important fixes to the master branch. This approach makes it easy to manage a project and team that may not be physically located within the same location.
Git will continue to foster the ease of development, lowering the barrier to entry and encouraging global collaboration for generations to come. As technology finds its way into more parts of our daily lives, tools such as Git will play a role in shaping the future of software development, providing better apps for systems like the device you're reading this on.