It may be the case that the Git model is good enough for the way a lot of people want to collaborate, if combined with a nice UI.
Maybe "save" tries to commit, and pulls up a diff interface if there is a conflict? UI indications of other people's commits pending, and maybe merge those with current state of the document if there is no conflict?
There are a lot of edge cases to consider. But I feel like there might be a way to design UX for a Git workflow that makes it comfortable and intuitive to Muggles.
Maybe "save" tries to commit, and pulls up a diff interface if there is a conflict? UI indications of other people's commits pending, and maybe merge those with current state of the document if there is no conflict?
There are a lot of edge cases to consider. But I feel like there might be a way to design UX for a Git workflow that makes it comfortable and intuitive to Muggles.