[cjp]

Here [1] is a good but necessarily incomplete summary of version control tool history, written by ESR.

Tom Lord does deserve much credit for DVCS concepts, but so do Larry McVoy (Bitkeeper) and Graydon Hoare (Monotone).

[1] http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/version-control/version-con...

[abrahamsen]

I'd give Larry McVoy most credit of the three. He worked at TeamWare, which was the first DVCS, at least the first I have heard of. I don't know how much credit goes to him specifically, compared to the other people who worked on TeamWare though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_WorkShop_TeamWare