[ender7]

This is exactly what I was getting at. git's command layer is much like the "new" keyword in Javascript -- it's a false abstraction of a relatively elegant underlying system [1]. As it is, the command layer encourages a naive mental model that is both inaccurate and leaky. You end up having to learn both the abstraction layer and the actual system underneath in order to actually understand what any of the commands do.

[1] I assume this was originally done to make git seem more approachable to SVN or CVS users.

[stormbrew]

I find that SVN users have the most trouble with git, so I don't think that's true. Mercurial has a similar underlying model but has a porcelain layer that svn users find far more comfortable.

The branch switching behaviour definitely seems taken from cvs, but somehow works much much better than it ever did in cvs.