[paulsutter]

Git isn’t ideal, but it is right. It’s right because it’s solving source code control for a huge percentage of software projects. Something better could be even more right, and adoption would be the measure.

> git may have become successful, but that doesn't mean it's right.

[kasey_junk]

Gits adoption was driven by github, which won by making public repos free & private repos cost.

If bitbucket had that business model instead of the inverse we’d all think of git as that weird bad hg that Linus forces the Linux devs to use.

Git is a classic example of other factors than the software driving use.

[paulsutter]

Great then you should be able to do even better, right?

Seriously give it a try

[pjmlp]

First we need to power up to Linus skill level, then we can apply the same community influence spells.

Git would be dead on the water if it wasn't for being written by Linus and a requirement to interact with Linux development.

[munificent]

> Git isn’t ideal, but it is right. It’s right because it’s solving source code control for a huge percentage of software projects.

Your statement is only true to the degree that it's a tautology: Git's popularity demonstrates that it's right and the definition of "right" is "popular".

But if you want to use "right" to mean anything else, maybe to say something about it's technical merits independent of sociological factors like the network effect, first-mover advantage, high-profile early adopter, etc. then your sentence doesn't add any information.

Personally, I think Git's user experience is an unremitting shitshow, the kind of disaster that makes one reconsider Hanlon's Razor.

The technical capabilities buried under that UX are pretty nice, though you could probably discard 1/3 of them without impacting any noticeable fraction of users.

The performance is excellent and it's very easy for developers to underrate how much that effects user satisfaction.

And it had the good fortune to win on almost all of the sociological factors that largely determine product success.

[weberc2]

I get the general thrust, but this argument can be used for any incumbent. `git` is popular because _github_ works. Had github's founders stumbled upon Mercurial first, we would all be in a moderately better place. But yes, at the end of the day, Git Is Good Enough (TM).