I run a custom PHP site on a Managed VPS (LAMP stack) and am the solo developer, but want to start using GIT so freelancers can contribute. Currently I don't use GIT.
GIT
For GIT, I wanted to use Visual Studio Online (VSO) since I've used it before but am open to suggestions if it's better for the suggested deployment process.
Deployment
I kept a "Dev" folder and a "Live" folder on the web server and simply did all of my dev in the Dev folder, tested there, then ran rsync to push it to the Live folder. I couldn't easily run it locally since it has things like Linux symlinks, and I work on a Windows computer.
The Goal
I want to start adding GIT to this process, integrate that into a decent build process, and still use a Windows IDE for development. Though maybe I should install a Linux VM on my Windows machine so I can start running the site directly from pulling the latest version from GIT?
I need a setup that would be easy for other developers to join on as I find freelancers to help out.
Suggestions?