Looking at the exchange a bit and reviewing the context in which it occurred: it's a great example of someone clearly deciding what problem they want to fix, fo

Looking at the exchange a bit and reviewing the context in which it occurred: it's a great example of someone clearly deciding what problem they want to fix, followed by defining their priorities and sticking to them. As Linux has pointed out (IIRC), doing this pointed the way toward the underlying data structures, and the algorithms to manipulate this data followed from there. Cohen, as remarkable as always, comes across in this instance as trying to "sell" his product (codeville) and taking it a little personally when Linus isn't swayed. Linus clearly defines the problem he was trying to solve, and believes that git solves it better than codeville. He would have backed codeville if he thought it met kernel dev needs better than git. After all, he had jumped on Bitkeeper before, against other people's wishes.