Just a brief history
In July of 2005, after just a few month's work, Linus Torvalds, the genius behind Linux, released Git to meet his own needs, the needs of the Linux community, and eventually, the rest of us. The goal of Git was to be fast and efficient. It succeeded.
While most VCSes at the time were centralized (all the files were kept on a big server), Git uses a distributed system, in which everyone has their own repository. Technically, no central server is required for Git, although if you are working in a team, a central place for sharing code is convenient. But the huge difference is that with Git, the vast majority of your interactions with the VCS are local – right there on your disk.
