On the 7th of April, the anniversary of Git’s inception was celebrated with an interview featuring Linus Torvalds, the mastermind behind Linux and the initiator of the Git project. Linus mentioned that he only oversees this project to a small extent, despite its significant impact.
The genesis of Git dates back to late 2004 when Linux was still utilizing BitKeeper to manage code. However, BitKeeper wasn’t an open-source program, even though it allowed open-source projects to use it for free. Larry McVoy, the creator of BitKeeper, wanted to support open-source projects and knew Linus. But eventually, Andrew Tridgell reverse-engineered BitKeeper, leading to conflicts. Linus attempted to negotiate with both parties, but it was unsuccessful, prompting him to develop Git.
Linus dedicated approximately 10 days to writing Git full-time, producing around ten thousand lines of code. He maintained the project for only 3-4 months before passing the baton to Junio Hamano, who currently oversees it.
Interestingly, Linus admitted that he hasn’t closely followed Git’s evolution in recent times. He primarily relies on fundamental commands like merge, blame, and log, finding them sufficient for daily usage. He was surprised when his daughter’s friends knew Linus more for Git than Linux, given that he spent only four months developing Git.
Furthermore, Linus expressed his bewilderment over unconventional Git usage, such as Microsoft’s monorepo approach, or people attempting to add large files into Git repositories.
TLDR:
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Git, shared insights on its inception and minimal involvement in its management. Despite its profound impact, he finds basic Git commands adequate for daily usage and is surprised by the unconventional ways some users employ the platform.
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