Remote branchs -- how can I check them out?

From: João Paulo Melo de Sampaio <jpmelos@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 30, 2011, 15:05 UTC
Message-ID: <AANLkTin3Tfcf=WJHJdSA9TwhFXQfaMrnm5+YEWWjo=qj@mail.gmail.com>

Hello, people.

When I just cloned git using

    git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git

and I type

    git branch

it shows me I have only the 'master' branch in my local repository

    * master

and when I type

    git branch -a

it shows that there's all these branches remotely

    * master
      remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
      remotes/origin/html
      remotes/origin/maint
      remotes/origin/man
      remotes/origin/master
      remotes/origin/next
      remotes/origin/pu
      remotes/origin/todo

What do I have to do to be able to see what's in the 'maint', 'next' and 'todo' branches, for example?

And by the way, what are those branches all about? Their names suggests they are maintenance branches (where you keep backward compatibility with an older version?), the next version of git (1.7.4 version?) and future features under implementation (the to-do list?).

Thank you for your time!

-- 
João Paulo Melo de Sampaio
Computer Engineering Student @ UFSCar
Website: http://www.jpmelos.com
Twitter: twitter.com/jpmelos (@jpmelos)