[silentbicycle]

You forgot about "git commit" vs. "hg ci".

The real reason is that git has Linus behind it, of course, and the fiasco with BitKeeper attracted a lot of attention. This led to tremendous buzz, and then the Ruby / Rails communities* (among others) started spreading and amplifying it. I see tons of blog posts about how git is the best thing ever, and it's a freaking version control system, you know? It's sort of like if people suddenly got singing-and-dancing-in-the-streets excited over a somewhat better version of make, or something. Think about that.

There are other DVCSs that are also quite good (I like Mercurial, for one), but a pretty good version control system can't compete with a pretty good version control system with a tidal wave of hype.

* Also, since the Rails people are themselves working on a popular web development system, they probably had a disproportionately large amount of influence among bloggers in tech circles.

[bayareaguy]

It's sort of like if people suddenly got singing-and-dancing-in-the-streets excited over a somewhat better version of make

I'd sing and dance for a somewhat better version of make that doesn't end up causing me more problems over time then it solves.

[silentbicycle]

I meant people in general, not programmers specifically.

People who wouldn't generally care about something like a VC system are excited about git because Linus is talking it up, I think.