hg came before git, you have your network effect backwards.<p>The reason git ended up overtaking mercurial is because git is more flexible. Programmers for closed-source enterprise projects worldwide flocked to git because git can be massaged into any existing development process almost painlessly.<p>Mercurial, in contrast, is &quot;opinionated&quot;.<p>(Before you mention github -- the timeline here is also backwards, github became the de-facto standard riding on the coattails of git&#x27;s success.)