I'm using Git because it makes me feel cool

Let's be honest for a second, anybody who knows me knows that I'm clearly an insecure person; I spend the majority of my time trying my best to appear cool. I've owned a lot of Macs in my life, not because they're solid machines with a fantastic operating system, but because I felt so damn smug and cool whenever I was doing anything on my Macs. I also developed Mac software for a while, not because it was my passion or Objective-C and Cocoa are practically God's gift to software, but because Mac developers are so cool, what with the black-rimmed glasses and fancy coffees. Hell, I remember when I finally traded my MacBook Pro for a Thinkpad running Linux; it had nothing to do with an ideological stance against Apple's treatment of developers or frustrations with Leopard, it was all about the new geek-chic that was Linux. Thus far, my life has basically been one big quest for more leet-points.

Then came Git.

When I started out in the software world, I was using CVS, which was a notch less cool than a slim IBM salesman's tie. The constant moaning and groaning of fellow developers using CVS, combined with the shame that I felt when I finally told my parents about my use of CVS was too much to bear. I had to switch.

I remember the first time I tried Subversion, I remember talking to Dave and saying "Meh, I'll stick with CVS!" Soon enough, just like the Macarena, Subversion swept the nation up. Subversion was the newest, coolest thing ever, developers rushed into the streets exclaiming "it sucks less than CVS! It sucks less than CVS!" I switched over to Subversion and all of a sudden I was cool again. One by one, open source projects I knew about switched over to Subversion, then Source Forge switched over to Subversion and in an instant, Subversion replaced CVS and became the mainstream version control system. Subversion had grown up, gotten married, a 401k and health insurance, how uncool.

After joining Slide, which used Subversion, I found myself burning up inside. Here I was at this hip start-up, really feeling cool, but still using the same version control system that uncool companies like, Yahoo! and Sun use. I would not stand for this. As 2007 became 2008 the writing was on the wall, Git was our new bicycle. It had been blessed by Saint Torvalds and clearly we needed to get in on the ground floor of the new cool before it became mainstream.

We needed to switch to Git immediately. Who cares if Git is extremely fast, it's not like time is money or something ridiculous like that. What do I care if Git handles branches and merge histories unlike CVS or Subversion? With its immense coolness-factor, I didn't even consider that Git will allow us to work in a decentralized workflow or a centralized workflow, nope, didn't even cross my mind. If one were to make a list of Pros and Cons of Git versus whichever other version control system, you could just put "Pro: Cool" at the top of the list, underlined, in bold, and the rest would be moot as far as I'm concerned.

Unlike Subversion or Perforce, Git doesn't have corporate backing, Git is distributed, like a guerilla-force sweeping through the jungle ready to pownce on an unsuspecting platoon; that's freakin' cool. Git rides a motorcycle, wears a leather jacket, makes women swoon and kicks ass and/or jukeboxes.

Git is the Fonz. Cool.

Don't make any false assumptions about my feelings towards Git, it's not like it's a clearly superior version control system or anything, I'm using it only because I want to be cool too.