[bsder]

> I've tried and failed countless times to convince people of the utility of version control.

Don't pitch it as version control. Pitch it as "homework submission process" that has the side benefit of being a backup if their laptop crashes. Students are used to horrible homework submission processes (looking at you Blackboard) and quickly adapt to seeing version control systems as a pretty nice alternative.

And, for about 25% of your class, the lightbulb will go on and they'll start using version control even in their other courses.

> at least 50% of the population is incapable of learning Git without extensive coaching

Mercurial can be taught to mere mortals just fine. Same with Subversion. Same with CVS. I've done that for all three. People tell me that lots of artists use Perforce quite readily.

Git is the only dumbass version control system that revels in being obtuse.