Git is a distributed version control system created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to be very fast, support branching and merging easily, and handle Git's workflow of distributed development across multiple repositories. Some key advantages of Git include not requiring a central repository, speed, easy branching and merging, and increased collaboration. However, adoption of Git also presents challenges like learning new concepts and tools, lack of good GUIs, and incompatibility with some SVN workflows.