I use git-svn to use a central repository. Let me list the advantages

1) Faster

There is no comparison. But let me count the ways

a) checking out stuff

It is faster than just downloading a directory using SVN.

b) just trying something out (ie. branch)

Creating a branch, making a few changes takes me seconds, and does not require me to change paths like it does for the svn victims I work with. Throwing it back out again takes seconds, and all operations are reversible for when I fuck up (which is often).

c) merging

Git's merging. Oh my God. In half the cases I just have to check stuff over, if that.

d) submitting

We use code review. Unlike most of the subversion folks I can easily have 5 co-dependant changes in flight (5 changes, each depending on the previous one) without going insane, and I have gone up to 13, not counting experimental branches. I observe around me that it takes a good developer to manage 2 with subversion. 5 is considered insane, I bet if I showed them the 13 were in flight at the same time they'd have me taken away as a danger to humanity.

2) always backed up

Subversion doesn't back up until you commit and people don't commit anywhere near quickly enough ... The way people lose code around here 99.9% of the time is by accidentally overwriting their in-flight code contributions (the remaining 0.1% involves laptop upgrades and overenthusiastic developers. Even then cp -rp will just copy my environment and just work, and yet the same is absolutely not true for the subversion guys).

Now with Git, I commit every spelling fix I make, every semicolon I have forgotten, on occassion separately, other times with "--amend". And only then make my share of stupid mistakes, after committing, something that's technically not impossible on subversion but not practical, mostly because of code review ("just commit it" on subversion takes ~5 minutes in the very fast case (that requires a colleague dropping everything that very second, AND can't involve any actual code changes, as that trips a CI run that takes 3 minutes assuming zero contention), and 20-30 minutes is a more typical time (measured from "hey, I'd like to commit this", to actually in the repository). Committing on git takes me the time to type "<esc>! git commit % -m 'spellingfix'". The subversion commit time means that developers often go for weeks without committing. Weeks, as in plural.

I get that a git commit isn't the same thing as a subversion commit. But it does allow me to use the functionality of source control, and that's exactly what I'm looking for in a source control system. Subversion commit doesn't allow me to use source control without paying a large cost for it, that's what I'm getting at.

So I have backups guarding against the 99.9% problem (and an auto-backup script that does hourly incremental backups for the 0.1% case). The subversion guys are probably better covered for the 0.1% problem. Good for them !

3) actual version control

Git's branches, rebase, merge, etc mean I can actually work on different things within short time periods in the same codebase.

The fact that other developers are using subversion means I can have my own git hooks that I use for various automated stuff. Some fixing code layout, some warning me about style mistakes, bugs, ... (you'd be surprised how much your reputation benefits from these). Some updating parts of the codebase when I modify other parts, ... you have to be careful as these are part of the reason subversion is so slow (esp. the insistence on CI, I hear a CI run at big G, which is required before even code review can happen, takes upwards of an hour on many projects with some taking 8-9 hours)