How to use git graph in vs code?

Question

I am doing a git course and the git graph extension has been recommended to me. To my colleagues, the extension shows a graph with the different branches as follows:

But to me all the branches appear in the same line:

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong or how to use the extension. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Your colleagues' screen shows a real merge commit. Yours seems to be a fast-forward merge. Fast-forward merges are the default when the branches have not diverged. In that case, the branch label can simply be moved to match the other branch's label (i.e. fast-forwarded). Only when branches have diverged, Git must create a merge commit to reconcile the history of both branches.