Bill Lear:
Also (apologies for the ignorance), how do I get the 1.5.0-rc2 release?
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
Then checkout the commit tagged 'v1.5.0-rc2'.
There are no such tarballs (yet) on:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/