The description of the status display is almost exactly what happens when you type ":Gstatus" while you are editing a file under a git repository in vim, if you have the fugitive plugin installed. If you use vim, you might be interested in this - there is some extra smoothness you get when you don't have to leave your editor.
Yup, came here to second this recommendation. A lot of the benefits found in tig can be found in fugitive. One feature of fugitive I use all the time is Gdiff to allow quick and easy comparison of various versions of a file. Nonetheless, the history view and other features of tig are worth checking out.
I use tig and fugitive for about one year and a half, now, and I must say that even if fuvitive seems more powerful to me in its ability to let you see old versions of a file in your editor, I use tig on regular basis, and fugitive very rarely. they're user experience just doesn't match.
