[magoon]

> Why do I get prompted to enter a commit message when I'm just doing a git pull?

This shouldn't happen; you need to rethink how you're set up.

> Why do I have to explicitly add every file I want to commit each time? Why can't it just default to "everything under the current dir" like svn does?

You can use git commit -a

Edit: by "rethink" I mean research why this is happening, because it isn't by design. I'm sure somebody can help, I just don't have the answer for you.