My point was that any branching strategy will necessarily introduce an integration delay. Instead of merging to master every hour or so, the delay is measured in days. The longer the gaps between merges the larger the change set, the greater the risk and impact of merge conflicts.

And, yes, I have! SourceSafe, CVS, StarTeam, Subversion, Perforce, ClearCase, PVCS, Mercurial and Git in (roughly) chronological order by my reckoning. Thanks for asking.