Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I probably own about one or two git books, I use git quite a bit but I don't go beyond my normal basic routines. I then was given the opportunity to review Mastering Advanced Git, a 3-and-a-half-hour video by Matthew McCullough (@matthewmccull) and Tim Berglund (@tlberglund). After the introductory video warning us that the topics are quite advanced, I decided to review the predecessor set of videos, Mastering Git which went through the basics. Whilst reviewing that set of videos is beyond the scope of this review, it is vital that anyone who is new to Git take that up first as you will be completely lost if you attempt the master version without the pre-requisite knowledge of the first set.

So anyway, the videos here take your git productivity to a much higher level, and the style of learning via video puts you in a tutorial class alongside other people who are learning (in the video) where they represent you and ask questions when something isn't straight forward. The tutorial presentations are preeminent, where they go through a lot of the concepts which are hard to come by in normal documentation, such as advanced configuration of the git repository to customise default behaviour, various pull and push options and working with Refspec.

The explanations were clear, they went over a few examples to solidify your understanding of the particular concept which is fantastic. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get a chapter on submodules, which is one of the things that makes git unique compared to svn, however the knowledge you acquire from both videos (this one and the predecessor one) would allow you to have a strong overall understanding of git.

Now that I have gone through the videos, I would be able to go back to individual chapters if I forgot something and this acts as a great reference set of material. Overall, I would sincerely recommend Mastering Advanced Git to anyone who Mastering Git, so give this method of learning a go and see how you go compare to the normal O'Reilly literature. I would be interested to see a git cookbook come out of course, which would be a fantastic addition to my expanding library of git books and videos.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I don't usually like video tutorials, but this one was very effective.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I really, really like the way material is presented. Pragmatically, illustrated with simple examples and with only as much theory as you need.

Basically, I have started with zero knowledge to git, and now I am thinking of moving my personal backup repository from svn to git. What I know for sure, I will give it a try.

One drawback here. Video lacks the companion book. Some sort of workbook where you could easily pick up the command line syntax and navigate over the material. But still, I recommend this one.

I am recently becoming a fan of Tim and Matthew – they are doing really good job during their online trainings.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

Great presentation, a lot of material for the money here. It seems like a lot of time to spend watching video, but Git is worth learning, and worth learning well, and this got me past some of the more tricky concepts. I'm still having some challenges because our Git setup is a bit more complex than most (using submodules with submodules) but this was a great basis from which to understand what is going on. The bad thing is you do have to spend some time to get through it all; the good thing is none of it gets boring; the presentation style is great, the speakers are clear, and have good questions they play off each other with. Great production values, very clear audio, highly readable code examples since it's HD video.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I come from the Windows world and I'm just getting used to coding in the OS X world. I was struggling with git/github and even terminal. I just couldn't get my head around git. Matthew and Tim make it so simple. I was over thinking the workflow. Thanks guys!

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I received the Mastering Git video series through a local user's group in exchange for writing this review. Before viewing the videos I had read a book on Git, seen a live presentation on it and used it casually on a small project. I found the videos to be a very thorough discussion of using and understanding Git and they definitely filled in the gaps in my knowledge and answered lingering questions I had.

However, I couldn't help but wonder how well I would have been able to follow the material if I had no previous exposure to Git. Certainly if you're watching the videos on your own you can rewind when you miss something or need to hear it again for clarification but, it is nearly impossible to use the videos as a reference. Maybe if there were an accompanying comprehensive table of contents or index it would help.

I would have rated the series 4 or more stars for content and presentation but since searching videos for content is so problematic, I feel the need to also have a companion book or ebook for reference which, makes the video series a one-use product for me.

I see the ideal use for the Mastering Git video series to be in a classroom environment. There a group of users, ideally some of whom have at least basic Git knowledge, can expand their knowledge of the inner workings and discuss it further among themselves.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

This is one of the best video tutorials of Git that I've seen and I've seen a lot of them. Unlike, other videos it deals with more than just Git's basic functionality. An example, of this would be the twenty-minute long section on "rebassing", a feature of Git that can be used to avoid merge conflicts.

I like that all of the sections are at least 15 minutes long; some of the O'Reilly videos tend to have sections that are as short as two minutes long, making them a little inconvenient for multitasking. It's also nice that the format is a conversation between a number of developers, instead of just a guru preaching the virtues of his system of choice at the viewer; it gives the program a much more casual feel to it and makes paying attention to it not feel like a scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off; I'm still haunted by the first Git video I watched in which the presenter might as well have been saying "Bueller, Bueller."

This video course has definitely helped me understand many of the Git commands that I use on a daily basis and has helped me avoid nasty merger conflicts.

The bottom line is that I would and am recommending this to my friends that are either using a non distributed source control system, or are just curious about Git

This is one of the best programs offered as part of the blogger review program. Thanks to O'Reilly for allowing me to review it.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I've been using git on personal projects for about a year now and have a number of the books (ORA as well as others). While the books are good, there's nothing like demonstration and succinct, cogent dialog by folks who know the subject matter (which these two folks obviously do). I most heartily recommend this video to anyone needing to really understand both the mainline and subtle nuances of git; there's plenty in here for the veteran as well as novice git user.
One suggestion: the tools (such as Araxis Merge and GitX mentioned in the last part of the last video) would be well-served by having a separate slide or attachment (e.g. supplementary PDF file to download) so those wishing to use them can remember details without reviewing the video.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I'd already mastered the basics of Git, and was looking for something that would explain the reasoning and best practices behind Git. This video series did just that - I learned stuff beyond the basic commit/push/pull operations.
The videos on the Git workflow especially helped my understanding of Git, and I still use some of the tips I learned in the 'Merging' video. Overall an excellent course on Git, well worth the 4 hours of time I put into watching it and following along with the presenters.

Comments about O'Reilly Media McCullough and Berglund on Mastering Git:

I listened to a clip every morning while getting ready for work, walking over to the computer to watch commands being entered, replaying each clip until I was ready to move on to the next one. Thanks to this video I've got a much better understanding advanced topics like rebasing.

I think I'll need to watch the course a few more times while working on a toy project in order to feel like I've mastered the material.

I wish the presenters had taken us all the way through a tiny tiny real project (in any scripting language) rather than a pseudo project. Also, one of the presenters used a white terminal with a light aqua command prompt to show commands; this made the commands he entered painful to read. The other presenter's terminal colors were much more sensibly chosen.