«I still run into people lambasting git for the concept of the index from time to time. It seems strange and superfluous to users of other VCSs – like a speed bump that serves no purpose. Why not just commit the changes in the working copy? This perception is understandable; when I first heard of git, back as a Subversion user, I was one of these people. How times and minds change. Today, I use it and rely on it so much that I can’t imagine moving to any other VCS that doesn’t have this concept. (And none of the contemporary contenders do.) Because of this, I keep responding to such criticism, repeating myself. I figured I should put my explanation down somewhere where I can point people to. So what is the index good for? »