0. Research. This is one small part of why I read HN, and other assorted "news" sites. I like to stay current with the tools I use. I don't jump at every new tool just because it's new, but I understand that my current set of tools is not perfect. Sooner or later, I'm going to replace every tool in my toolbox with an even better tool. I may like my current set of tools today, but I understand that it's important not to get so attached to them that I stagnate as a developer. I think it's critically important for good developers to stay "intellectually curious".
1. I decided that git was worth trying. So, I started using it with my next new project. This allowed me to establish a new work flow without interrupting active projects. Yes, you'll need to read man pages, cheat sheets, etc. There's no point to adopting a new tool if it behaves exactly like the old one. So, it shouldn't be a surprise when you actually have to commit to learning the new tool. That said, I found git to be more user friendly than I'd expected based on the negative comments I'd read online.
2. I decided I liked the new work flow and that git was worth switching to. I moved my old projects over to git in less than a day and used git for all my work moving forward.
I'm sure this transition is different for everyone. I'm also sure that git is not yet (and may never be) a good fit for some people. But, I really don't see the point in disparaging those who think the switch is worthwhile for them.
I think that Linus Torvalds scratched a very personal itch with git, but that it needs a lot of time and polish to be a valid, general-purpose competitor to subversion. Couple that with the fact that I've seen very few rational discussions of the benefits of the environment, and lots of references to the hype, and I've become quite skeptical.
Granted, if you are used to a centralized workflow, then I can see where git might be different enough to cause some strain. But even on a one-person project (and I have plenty of those), I found git much easier to use than cvs (or svn for that matter) even though it took some time to get used to the decentralized nature of git.
It took me a few hours to learn enough in git to replicate my experience in svn; sure, it takes longer than that to learn some of the other features, but the only time that is actually lost is the time spent relearning what one already knows.
(I'm not being flippant -- I hear this from people all the time, and it really makes no sense to me. If you're just going to set up a single central repository, why wouldn't you use the proven, capable tool for that workflow? Git is rather poorly documented, and works with only a tiny fraction of the professional tools that support SVN.)
My point is that the only time you lose is the time you spend relearning what you can already do with SVN: all time spent learning new things isn't lost time at all.
When it comes to documentation, not only is the reference manual excellent in the usual way of Unix reference manuals, but I also know of six tutorial Git books, several of which are free online: the Git User's Manual, the Git Community Book, Git Magic, Pragmatic Version Control Using Git, Pro Git, and Git Internals.
As I said in another comment (now deleted), I'm using Subversion on a project for the first time in years, and I constantly find myself wishing the project was using Git.
I think if you're going to make a comment like this, you have to defend the decision to use the new system. Simply pointing to the "fuss" is not enough, when you're rebutting an argument that the fuss is unjustified.
And I'm not sure where you 95% figure comes from, but I see thousands of people using the above features daily. The number keeps growing, too.
See http://whygitisbetterthanx.com/ for more reasons.
As for my rebuttal, the parent was stating as fact that Git was only incrementally better than, say, Subversion. I was merely pointing out that this statement was opinion - not trying to prove it wrong.
Speaking as someone who had very little experience with SCMs before git, I have never found myself particularly stuck or frustrated, and have really found it quite easy to learn. There are plenty of great resources online and I've found the man pages detailed enough for quick-reference type stuff. I taught my co-worker how to use git in about 15 minutes, and in another 10 we both understood branches and conflict resolution.
I'm always willing to learn new things, but I heavily disagree with anyone who thinks git radically changes the programming landscape.
Git has the buzz, though, and many people fail to notice anything else.