The theory is that you don't see those 10 commits unless you choose to. I think they're right in theory that a Sufficiently Smart^TM scm should be able to work

The theory is that you don't see those 10 commits unless you choose to. I think they're right in theory that a Sufficiently Smart^TM scm should be able to work better by not throwing data away, but I haven't tested if it actually works in practice. > The Git documentation acknowledges this fact (in so many words) and justifies it by saying "rebasing makes for a cleaner history." I read that sentence as a tacit admission that the Git history display capabilities are weak and need active assistance from the user to keep things manageable. Surely a better approach is to record the complete ancestry of every check-in but then fix the tool to show a "clean" history in those instances where a simplified display is desirable and edifying, but retain the option to show the real, complete, messy history for cases where detail and accuracy are more important.