IT is in no way different from any other sector when it comes to naming. You would see some systems being named based on their origin while others are named keeping in mind their features or functionality. Then there are some whose names have nothing in common with their origin, features, or anything else related to them.
It is these inconsistencies in naming conventions that make people confused about what a system is all about, what it does, and what benefits it offers. For instance, there are a lot of people out there who still get puzzled when asked about Git and GitHub and whether or not there is a difference between the two.
The similarity in their names has nothing to do with what they really are. They are two altogether different things. But at the same time, you can say that they still have a thing or two in common. Before we talk about Git and GitHub, let us first shed some light on version control systems (VCSs) and why are they so important.
What is version control?
In simple terms, version control is nothing but a system that keeps track of the changes made to source code or files. With a version control system, you can look back at the changes made to a particular file, either by you or another person, by accessing the version control database. This system gives you the ability to compare different versions of a file, thus allowing you to stay informed about the changes that have happened over a period of time.
The version control system can be referred to as a database that stores snapshots of different files in a project. These snapshots are taken every time a file is modified. It maintains all the records of the different versions of a file. In addition to comparing different versions of a file, VCSs also allows you to switch between them. VCSs can either be distributed or centralized. Let us see how these two types differ.
Centralized version control systems use a single, centralized server to store all the different versions of a file. Users can access these files by gaining access to this centralized server. Now, there is a disadvantage associated with this type of VCS. If the central server fails to function due to any reason, the entire history stored on its will be gone and no one will be able to recover any version/versions of the lost files.
Distributed version control systems have an edge over their centralized counterparts. These VCSs store file versions in two locations – the centralized server and your local machine. So, the disadvantage that we discussed centralized systems doesn’t exist in distributed systems.
Even if the server undergoes failure, you can retrieve all the different versions of your files from your local machine. Suppose you have a file, which is called VersionControl1. Now you made several changes to this file and saved the changes on each occasion. All the changes that you made to this file will be stored in the VCS, which will have all those versions of this file when you made changes to it.
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