Named Branches vs Multiple Repositories

• Multiple repositories - loses history of files which move between projects
• Forests
• Named branches
• SubRepos

Conclusion

• named branches for release maintenance
• cloned branches for development

Public Repository
The public repository holds the main version of the project.
This is where developers "pull" the project data and start making changes.
The working directory holds the files constituting the latest stable version. These files can be safely copied and installed by users.

Working Repository
(there can be many!)
The working repository is where you do your own cuisine : implement features, fix bugs, refactor, experiment.
When your changes are done, you can push them back to the project repository, so that they are available to other developers, and maybe integrated into the latest stable version.