What is Git? Why it is so important?
Tags: git, github, webdev, beginners
Published: 2020-06-15 19:50:54

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/id18s5zii19iwwkuuugc.png)
<h2>What is Git?</h2>
Git is a free and open source **distributed version control system** designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Now, this is a hell lot of heavy words. Don't worry! it's not that hard to understand.
Let me put it this way-Git is a place where you can:
<ul>
<li>Store your source code</li>
<li>Track changes in your source code</li>
<li>Anybody can access the source code if needed.</li>
</ul>
**Distributed version control system** is a type of version control system where the complete code (including its full version history) is mirrored on everyone's computer.
**Version control system** is a type of software tool that manages the changes to source code over time and keep the track of every change. 

I hope now you have a rough idea of what Git is.
The Git tool runs locally on a computer, is completely self-sufficient, and it does not require the use of an external function.

You may have heard about *GitHub*, *GitLab*, or *Bitbucket*. Well, these are cloud-based hosting service that lets you manage Git.

As of now, I'll be using *GitHub* to explain further.
*GitHub offers plans free of charge, and professional and enterprise accounts. Free GitHub accounts are commonly used to host open source projects or for personal projects.*

<h2>Why is it so important?</h2>
*If you are a coder/ programmer/ developer, you have to know Git.*
<ul>
    <li>Most importantly, your code is saved for life. You can't lose it.</li>
    <li>Suppose, you and your friend are working a project/software and want to make some modifications, how would you do so?</li>Git allows developers to  download a new version of the software/project/code/file, make changes, and upload the newest revision.
<li>You can track each and every change in the source code and check how it looked 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, or 10 years before.</li>
<li>You can look for people working on similar projects and work with them.</li>
<li>Contributing to an open source is such great exposure to one. It makes you future ready for the Tech industry.</li>
<i>There are many other things to add onto the list.</i>
</ul>
**This is important👇**
If you are a beginner and don't have projects or anything, don't get into the hype of it. Git is made to make our life easy, it's completely on us how do we need to use Git.

Whatever you code, even if it's a simple *pattern question* just put it on GitHub. Maybe someone is looking for your patterns for reference. Remember, you don't have to perfect before starting anything.

In my case whenever I take any challenge for example take 100DaysofCode, I put up every problem solved by me every day. And Trust me! people do check for those code snippets, I made many connections.

Once you start putting up your stuff there. I'm pretty sure, you'll crave to do more, I have been coding for 2 years and started using Git just 1-2 months before. Nothing makes me as happy as the green squares in the activity graph. 

*In the next article, we'll see how to use GitHub and a few basic Git commands.*

If the article helps you in any way, do tell me. Nowadays I'm pretty active here ;)

Okay bye, See ya❤!