Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why did Git become so popular?

programmers.stackexchange.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 122 posts

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#21

Post by nikcub »

ashishgandhi wrote: post #5
fbuilesv wrote: post #2

I think the current answer fails to mention two important things: 1. GitHub. 2. Linus himself wrote it (the kernel previously used BitKeeper but that never got any real traction AFAIK). Having said that, I think this phrase totally nails it: "If it's good enough for the Linux kernel, it's good enough for you" is a very convincing argument.

GitHub was founded in 2008. The spike is in 2010-01. That's what the question mentions too.

that is what network effects look like

for eg. it is comparable to the chart of Facebook growth[0]

[0] http://www.nathaninfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Face...

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#22

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #14
silverbax88 wrote: post #6

Having used ClearCase, CVS, Subversion, TFS, Git and Mercurial, I would have to say it's because not enough people have tried Mercurial. I have no interest in Git, but I think people like GitHub (or maybe don't know about BitBucket)

This contains the answer for why git won: Mercurial people have "no interest" in it. What that tells me is that you have no interest in working with the community and contributing to other peoples' projects, most of which use git these days. Sure, if you want a SCM for your own team or your own private use, you can make a strong case for hg being "better". But that's not what SCM is for. Using it in your own ivory to…

[deleted]

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#23

Post by calinet6 »

A classic case of critical mass. Linus started git, then Github made it social, then everyone started using git, so you did too.

Think of it exactly like an atomic bomb. Atomic bombs are simple: you need fissile material that decays and emits neutrons, and you need it to get close enough to keep a reaction going.

The fissile material in this case is the quality of the software. If it's good, consider it fissile. If it sucks, it probably ain't exploding anytime soon. Git is good. It works, it's fun to use, and it's collaborative.

The trigger was Linux. A large developer community suddenly was introduced to it, and used it day-to-day as Linus was still developing Git itself. The bomb had dropped.

Github was the mechanism itself. It brought all of the developers closer together (like neutrons) and the reaction started spreading. The quality of the experience ensured people actually wanted to be there, and to share it.

Critical mass of ~the social web~ anything in society. 1. Quality, 2. Trigger, 3. Social Mechanism. Boom.

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#24

Post by calinet6 »

secure wrote: post #11

cross-posting my answer here: The package "gnuit" (GNU Interactive Tools, a file browser/viewer and process viewer) was called "git" in Debian up until 2009-09-09, while git was called "git-core". Therefore, a better graph to look at is: http://qa.debian.org/popcon-png.php?packages=git-core%20git&... Which shows that the popularity did not rise dramatically (take the green line for the left part until they cross, the…

Not as instant, but still exponential. That's an interesting factoid, but I think the intent of the question remains valid.

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#26

Post by camus »

because git is easy , git is distributed , and github is fancy. My designer team use git yet they cant program. They learned basic git in 4 hours. SVN is much more complicated to work with and to learn for non developers. Mercurial is cool too ,but since most of the library we use are on github my organisation push on github ( and bitbucket ).

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#27

Post by jiggy2011 »

ajross wrote: post #14
silverbax88 wrote: post #6

Having used ClearCase, CVS, Subversion, TFS, Git and Mercurial, I would have to say it's because not enough people have tried Mercurial. I have no interest in Git, but I think people like GitHub (or maybe don't know about BitBucket)

This contains the answer for why git won: Mercurial people have "no interest" in it. What that tells me is that you have no interest in working with the community and contributing to other peoples' projects, most of which use git these days. Sure, if you want a SCM for your own team or your own private use, you can make a strong case for hg being "better". But that's not what SCM is for. Using it in your own ivory to…

This seems a little exaggerated. Before git took over there were all kinds of VCS in use including a bunch of proprietary stuff.

If most of your work is done with one group of people inside your company and you decide mercurial is a better fit it would seem silly just to go with git because it is popular.

Besides the two are similar enough that someone versed in mercurial should be able to learn enough git to be useful quickly enough should it be required.

Re: Why did Git become so popular?

#29

Post by igrekel »

Tloewald wrote: post #12
debacle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which tool do you prefer the most?

We assume ClearCase is the worst, right?

Assuming too much... People who conplain loudly about ClearCase most often never understood how it is supposed to work. Ok ok, you need an army of administrators to make it work but still far from being the worst.

Sourcesafe?

Post reply on HN