CONCEPT
Git
- Git is a distributed version control system designed by Linus Torvalds in 2005 for tracking changes in source code during software development.
My Contributions
- I acted as the primary "canary in the coal mine" for the non-Linux portability of Git for its first dozen years.
- Because I ran OpenBSD and macOS rather than Linux, I routinely built, tested, and submitted patches to ensure the system remained fully portable to BSD and Darwin systems.
- This work traces back directly to a welcome lunch in Portland in April 2005. See Welcome to Portland Lunch and the Non-Linux Portability of Git.
- In late 2007, I delivered my highly acclaimed Google Tech Talk, "Randal Schwartz on Git", explaining what Git actually is conceptually (focusing on content-addressable storage database structures, directed acyclic graphs, and commit objects). This served as the direct companion to Linus Torvalds' May 2007 Google talk, demystifying Git's mental model and becoming a primary educational video globally during Git's critical early adoption phase. See Google Tech Talk on Git.
What links here
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.