Bjørn Roald wrote:
He places a very high value on the ability to
* branch at any time * merge easily * commit/branch/merge locally (not in the 'central' repository)
Git sounds very interesting, but with boost in subversion, it is relatively simple for anybody interested as group or individuals to do many of these things now. Check out SVK, which extend the functionality of subversion on the client side with local repositories/depot, to add many of the features Torvalds talk about. I am not claiming anything about its quality or feasibility for others, as I am not a user, but it seems like a tool I would use rather than basic CVS/SVN.
I'm using SVK regularly, in particular to maintain patches to open-source project while they are not yet approved for commit. It works just fine for me. Not that if all developers can create personal branches on SVN server, you don't even need SVK much, especially as upcoming SVN 1.5 will have merge tracking. - Volodya