svn does not let you check in changes if your working copy is "out of date". You have to svn update before svn commit, which is the whole problem. (Remember "svn update" is a merge, and can cause conflicts.)
If you're merging a branch into trunk, and your working copy of trunk is out of date, then you're still doing it wrong. Update, resolve conflicts, commit, then merge.
If you're just complaining that sometimes you have to resolve conflicts on update, and that if you don't want to lose your local work by throwing away an update (aka "a merge"), then I have three responses for you:
1) You've got to update trunk someday anyway; suck it up and resolve the conflict.
2) If you're truly terrified of this, work on a branch (aka the Git solution -- which is totally supported in SVN!)
3) If even that doesn't work for you, just copy the files to a backup before you update.
I think you're just inventing problems for the sake of finding problems with a system that you don't like. Subversion is very simple; these situations aren't that hard to figure out.
I could work around the problem, yes, but why bother when Git prevents this situation for me? A version control system shouldn't require me to manually backup the working copy to avoid losing my work.
Basically, svn has no features I want, and it doesn't work as well as git... so there is no reason for me to use it.
If you like svn, that's fine... but you have to realize that it's losing mindshare because most people don't like it as much as git -- often for reasons like the one I mention above.
I think you're just inventing problems for the sake of finding problems with a system that you don't like.
No, this is a real problem that has caused me much annoyance. Obviously I didn't die, but who wants to waste time dealing with inadequate tools?
Subversion is very simple; these situations aren't that hard to figure out.
No, it's not. Read the source code before you write a rebuttal, though -- it's enlightening.
svn does not let you check in changes if your working copy is "out of date". You have to svn update before svn commit, which is the whole problem. (Remember "svn update" is a merge, and can cause conflicts.)