Unfortunately, git rebase has a very very annoying limitation that git merge doesn't. If you have a branch with, say, masterX + 10 commits, and commit 1 from your branch is in conflict with masterX+1, then when you rebase your branch onto masterX+1, you will have to resolve the conflict 10 times (assuming all 10 commits happen in the same area that had the original conflict). If instead you merge masterX+1 onto your branch, you will only have to resolve the conflict once.
Even though I much prefer a linear history, losing 1h or more to the tedious work of re-resolving the same conflict over and over is not worth it, in my opinion.
Even though I much prefer a linear history, losing 1h or more to the tedious work of re-resolving the same conflict over and over is not worth it, in my opinion.