Presenting Git for Windows again

A couple of years back I did a talk for the local .Net user group on how to use Git on Windows. I also wrote about my Git setup on Windows. Even though I don't do a lot of work in this environment, I figured I could contribute a lot of good tips and experience as a somewhat seasoned Git user.

Since then a few things have happened, so next week I'm heading back to Bonn-to-Code.Net to refresh their memories on what Git is about, and what has changed since last time.

Update: Talk done. Recording and slides can be found here.

So what has changed since last time then?

Microsoft has fully adopted Git as their (second) version control system of choice.
Git projects can be hosted inTeam Foundation Server, as well as on VisualStudio.com (which is kind of like TFS in the cloud).
You can operate Git repositories from within Visual Studio (without installing any extra Git tooling, thanks to libgit2).

On the desktop, you can and should still install MsysGit if you're going to use Git - Visual Studio 2013 even assists you in doing so - it will suggest to install it when you init or clone a Git project, and semi-automatically install it for you if you want.

What you maybe don't need anymore is the Git Extensions tool for Visual Studio. Git Extensions is a good standalone Git GUI, but I don't think you'll be needing it inside Visual Studio anymore (unless you are on something older than Visual Studio 2012, which supports Git).

Another thing that has changed is that HTTPS has become much more popular and accepted for Git authentication. As a result, I'll completely skip the awkward SSH setup instructions in my talk (have a look at my old post if you still want to get this working).

Finally, Git usage is now way up from where it was two years ago. Based on some rough estimates from open source trackers, we can assume that Git is nearly at Subversion's level in open source. I imagine that most businesses out there with a tad of innovation have done some Git experimenting by now.

Oh, and I now prefer cmder (based on ConEmu) over Console2. Hat-tip to Hanselman's tool list.

Most of the things I know about Microsoft's Git involvement I learned from Martin Woodward when I had him on GitMinutes. There's a lot of interesting history and information in that episode so do have a listen if you get the chance.

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