Author: Jon Loeliger
Publisher: O'Reilly, 2009
Pages: 328
ISBN: 978-0596520120
Aimed at: Users of Git in collaborative software
development
Rating: 5
Pros: Good coverage of topic for both beginners and existing users of Git
Cons: Niche topic
Reviewed by: Mike James

Git is perhaps the clincher for the proof that open source people are useless at picking marketable names for their projects. In this case the fault has to be placed on Linus Torvalds, the man who gave us and named Linux - so perhaps we should be grateful he wasn't feeling more creative in that case. Would Linux have been as successful if it had been called Git

Git wasn't only named by Linus, it was also created to manage the Linux project and as such it has to be taken serious even if it has a silly name. This book isn't at all silly. Subtitled "powerful tools and techniques for collaborative software development, it starts out with the history, reasons for and how to obtain and install Git.

From there is moves on to using it and does a good job of highlighting the differences between Git and other version control packages you might already know. The good thing is that not only are the procedures described so is how Git actually implements them and why it does it in that way. It covers the simpler ideas appropriate to a beginner and the more advanced topics such as working with multiple repositories.

It’s a short compact look at everything Git and if you want to use the software it’s a good book to have at your side.