Why can't Git handle large files and large repos?

Question

Dozens of questions and answers on SO and elsewhere emphasize that Git can\'t handle large files or large repos. A handful of workarounds are suggested such as git-fat and g

Answer 1

It's because every checkout holds every version of every file.

Now, there are ways git mitigates this issue, such as binary diffs and sparse clones, but certainly every client will have at least two copies (one in the work tree, one in the repository) of every file. Whether this is an issue for you depends on your circumstances.