That only works when your SVN server is in the same computer as you; the fact that SVN has to reach out to get additional data for the history is what kills it.

That only works when your SVN server is in the same computer as you; the fact that SVN has to reach out to get additional data for the history is what kills it. With git on the other hand, all the file storage is local to you machine regardless of which other remote git servers you may be using. In addition, git blame doesn’t have to go through all history; the logical git storage model is object based on hash, so it’s really a set of queries for the contents of hash values that is used. Yes, it walks through commits, but at the lightweight metadata of trees which are akin to navigating a file system.