Update the description of the branches in README.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bd918d6..4ecfa34 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,44 +2,47 @@
======
[](http://godoc.org/github.com/libgit2/git2go) [](https://travis-ci.org/libgit2/git2go)
+Go bindings for [libgit2](http://libgit2.github.com/).
-Go bindings for [libgit2](http://libgit2.github.com/). The `master` branch follows the latest libgit2 release. The versioned branches indicate which libgit2 version they work against.
+### Which branch to use
+
+The numbered branches work against the version of libgit2 as specified by their number. You can import them in your project via gopkg.in, e.g. if you have libgit2 v0.25 installed you'd import with
+
+ import "gopkg.in/libgit2/git2go.v25"
+
+which will ensure there are no sudden changes to the API.
+
+The `master` branch follows the tip of libgit2 itself (with some lag) and as such has no guarantees on its own API nor does it have expectations the stability of libgit2's. Thus this only supports statically linking against libgit2.
Installing
----------
-This project wraps the functionality provided by libgit2. If you're using a stable version, install it to your system via your system's package manager and then install git2go as usual.
+This project wraps the functionality provided by libgit2. It thus needs it in order to perform the work.
-Otherwise (`next` which tracks an unstable version), we need to build libgit2 as well. In order to build it, you need `cmake`, `pkg-config` and a C compiler. You will also need the development packages for OpenSSL and LibSSH2 installed if you want libgit2 to support HTTPS and SSH respectively.
+This project wraps the functionality provided by libgit2. If you're using a versioned branch, install it to your system via your system's package manager and then install git2go.
-### Stable version
-git2go has `master` which tracks the latest release of libgit2, and versioned branches which indicate which version of libgit2 they work against. Install the development package on your system via your favourite package manager or from source and you can use a service like gopkg.in to use the appropriate version. For the libgit2 v0.22 case, you can use
+### Versioned branch, dynamic linking
- import "gopkg.in/libgit2/git2go.v22"
+When linking dynamically against a released version of libgit2, install it via your system's package manager. CGo will take care of finding its pkg-config file and set up the linking. Import via gopkg.in, e.g. to work against libgit2 v0.25
-to use a version of git2go which will work against libgit2 v0.22 and dynamically link to the library. You can use
+ import "gopkg.in/libgit2/git2go.v25"
- import "github.com/libgit2/git2go"
+### Master branch, or static linking
-to use the 'master' branch, which works against the latest release of libgit2, whichever that one is at the time.
-
-### From `next`
-
-The `next` branch follows libgit2's master branch, which means there is no stable API or ABI to link against. git2go can statically link against a vendored version of libgit2.
+If using `master` or building a branch statically, we need to build libgit2 first. In order to build it, you need `cmake`, `pkg-config` and a C compiler. You will also need the development packages for OpenSSL (outside of Windows or macOS) and LibSSH2 installed if you want libgit2 to support HTTPS and SSH respectively. Note that even if libgit2 is included in the resulting binary, its dependencies will not be.
Run `go get -d github.com/libgit2/git2go` to download the code and go to your `$GOPATH/src/github.com/libgit2/git2go` directory. From there, we need to build the C code and put it into the resulting go binary.
- git checkout next
git submodule update --init # get libgit2
make install
-will compile libgit2. Run `go install` so that it's statically linked to the git2go package.
+will compile libgit2, link it into git2go and install it.
Parallelism and network operations
----------------------------------
-libgit2 uses OpenSSL and LibSSH2 for performing encrypted network connections. For now, git2go asks libgit2 to set locking for OpenSSL. This makes HTTPS connections thread-safe, but it is fragile and will likely stop doing it soon. This may also make SSH connections thread-safe if your copy of libssh2 is linked against OpenSSL. Check libgit2's `THREADSAFE.md` for more information.
+libgit2 may use OpenSSL and LibSSH2 for performing encrypted network connections. For now, git2go asks libgit2 to set locking for OpenSSL. This makes HTTPS connections thread-safe, but it is fragile and will likely stop doing it soon. This may also make SSH connections thread-safe if your copy of libssh2 is linked against OpenSSL. Check libgit2's `THREADSAFE.md` for more information.
Running the tests
-----------------
