4 ms·
It actually annoys me when people don't use git now. Git has clearly won among current dvcs. If something comes along later that's head and shoulders above dvcs
by ellyagg 17y ago
It actually annoys me when people don't use git now. Git has clearly won among current dvcs. If something comes along later that's head and shoulders above dvcs, then I'll be happy to switch. But for now, random folks' views on why their tool is marginally technically better doesn't outweigh the enormous benefits of everyone you know using the same dvcs.
And it annoys me when people use BitBucket over Github. It's like your one friend who insists on not having a Facebook account and sticking to his Livejournal because Livejournal is supposedly better at some random thing, but in reality, you strongly suspect he just wants to prove he's not a follower, an independent breed cut from a better cloth than the rest of us.
These days, whenever I need a new little tool, its official repo is usually on Github. This lets me pull it into my project as a submodule and still contribute back in a very efficient way. As soon as it's mercurial, I can't, simply because I don't know mercurial and I certainly have zero intention of attaining the same mastery of it that I have of git. And, frankly, I don't want to attain any mastery of it.
Moreover, of course, you can't just mix repos willy nilly. Maybe there's a way to use mercurial as a submodule of git repos. But it's gonna be a dastardly hack.
So, please. Just use git. Competition is good, but so is standardization. I get that you have highly nuanced opinions about the various merits of dvcs, and I'm sure you're right and I'm wrong. But it just doesn't matter, because the benefits of mercurial don't outweigh the beneficial network effects of using git, and that's never going to change.
- ubernostrum 17y agoI had a two-word reply to your opinions, but then I realized HN would vote me down into oblivion for expressing it in those terms. So I'll pose it in different terms: why haven't you given into the network effects of, say, Visual Basic?
- tene 17y agoCan you elaborate on what the network effects of using Visual Basic would be, actually? What domains does Visual Basic have significant network effects? How does this compare against the network effects of Perl's CPAN, which is a significant factor in my choice of programming language?
- ubernostrum 17y agoOffhand, I'd bet VB will open up a larger raw number of job opportunities than Perl. So why doesn't everybody jump on that bandwagon? After all, every major language is Turing-complete, so obviously people are just nitpicking when they could be choosing a clear winner.
- _delirium 17y agoMaybe it's the circles I travel in, but I don't see the same git dominance you do vs. mercurial; I see them both really frequently. Among major projects I can think of off the top of my head, Python, Adium, OpenOffice, and Mozilla are all on mercurial.
- llimllib 17y ago> Python... [is] on mercurial Welllll... no. Python has made the decision to move to hg, but the conversion has hit some stumbling blocks and is not yet complete: http://sayspy.blogspot.com/2010/01/where-hg-transition-stands.html http://sayspy.blogspot.com/2010/01/where-hg-transition-stand...
- gsakkis 17y agoFunny, I could have posted the same comment after s/git/mercurial/g and s/Github/BitBucket/g. But then again, it would be equally stupid and trollish.
- nsm 17y agoI use mercurial, because it supports HTTPS pushing. Git has had a request for http(s) push for years and hasn't implemented it. My university blocks outgoing SSH access and none of the standard prescribed solutions work. Its quite easy for someone with a job to say - "Get a VPS and tunnel through it", but I can't afford a VPS, so git has barriers to entry, and until that is reduced I will stick to my LiveJournal. You should switch to Windows again, you'll receive the enormous benefit that everyone you know uses the same OS.
- pjhyett 17y agoSmart HTTP support for Git is being released soon. We'll be adding it to GitHub shortly thereafter.
- AndrewDucker 17y agoMonoculture has its own problems. Lack of competition, for one thing, and a lack of different options for people that actively like working in different ways. Oh, and Livejournal does both security and commenting better than Facebook, which is why I have both.