[DougWebb]

I'm curious: did you use branches and labels in SVN? I've come across many svn repositories that don't use the trunk/branches/tags layout, and as a result the developers keep completely separate repositories for slightly different versions of their projects instead of creating branches. I've even seen new repositories created for each release version of the project.

If you're using svn you need to understand the implementation to get why copies are cheap, so that you can understand how to use branching and tagging appropriately.

[Pxtl]

The problem is that with SVN, you can get in gradually. To start, the branchless approach still gets you a great service - obviously an incomplete one, but better than not having source control at all. And you can have leaders who are the only people who have to think about branching and merging and have people very gradually move into that role.

Git seems to force you to dive straight into the deep-end, since everything is a branch, even your own local working folder.

[jlgreco]

Branches are fundamentally little more than text files in .git/refs/heads that contain the sha of a commit object. Don't let the idea of a branch frighten you, there isn't much complexity behind the idea.

[hibbelig]

Well, I know _that_ copies are cheap in svn, but I have no idea _why_. Yet I hope that I grok branches and tags.