What is Git?

What is Git and what does Git stand for?

Git is a free distributed revision control, or software source code management project with an emphasis on being fast. Git was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development.

Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or a central server.

Linus Torvalds has quipped about the name "git" (British slang for a stupid or unpleasant person) being named after himself, but the official Git wiki also gives a number of alternative explanations for the name, including "Global Information Tracker".

Personally I like the first explanation better. It appeals to my weird sense of humour I guess. ;-)

References
Git (software) (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)