Mercurial had its chance, and it blew it by insisting that the history is immutable and branches are heavy-weight objects (SVN-style). Turns out that's not what

Mercurial had its chance, and it blew it by insisting that the history is immutable and branches are heavy-weight objects (SVN-style). Turns out that's not what people want, so git won. (And the fact that Mercurial supports history editing _now_ is irrelevant, that ship has long sailed.)