thearchivist.funGit makes parallel work part of version control
Git was created in 2005 to support fast, distributed development of the Linux kernel.
Context and provenance
Git emerged in 2005 after the Linux development community's relationship with the makers of BitKeeper changed and the tool's free-of-charge availability ended. Linus Torvalds and other developers needed a replacement suited to a large, distributed project. The goals included speed, a simple design, strong support for many parallel branches, and operation without requiring one central repository to contain the only useful history. Git's own history presents these constraints as formative. Its significance goes beyond saving old versions: a version-control system shapes how people propose changes, compare alternatives, attribute work, and bring independent contributions back together without losing the sequence of development.
Why it matters
Editorial perspective: Collaboration improves when experiments can remain separate until they are ready to combine. A useful history should let people ask not only what changed, but how different lines of work became a shared result.