May 17, 2026
Commit drama never dies
Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]
Everyone thought Mercurial was dead, but fans say Git only won the popularity contest
TLDR: Mercurial, a software history tool many assumed was dead, is celebrating 20 active years and arguing it still matters. In the comments, people are split between saying it was easier and better for humans, and admitting Git won simply because everyone else followed the crowd.
Mercurial, a code-tracking tool born in 2005, is marking 20 years of stubborn survival with a talk asking the question many people seem shocked to hear: wait, this thing is still alive? The project says it never actually died. It kept shipping updates, inspired newer tools, stayed funded, and quietly influenced how people build software. But in the public imagination, Mercurial became the one that lost to Git and then vanished into tech history. The comments? Absolutely full of people dusting off old loyalties, regrets, and a little chaos.
The strongest vibe is a mix of "Mercurial was better" and "yeah, but Git won anyway." One commenter flat-out said their company picked Mercurial over Git years ago and called it the "wrong choice" only because Git crushed it socially, not because Mercurial was worse. Another insisted Mercurial was simpler, clearer, and closer to what normal teams actually need. Windows users even showed up to praise TortoiseHg, the friendly desktop helper they remember more fondly than Git’s equivalent.
Then came the spice. One commenter launched a full-blown roast of Python developers, joking that they abandoned Mercurial because it worked too well. Others got nostalgic over the return of Hg Init, while also side-eyeing the mystery of what happened to the old hginit.com. In other words: Mercurial’s 20th birthday party turned into a reunion full of exes saying, "honestly, you were the better one."
Key Points
- •Mercurial is a distributed version control system created in 2005 and has remained continuously active since then.
- •The article says Mercurial has sustained development through modern tooling, new ideas, community-created tools, competitiveness, and ongoing funding.
- •The talk examines why Mercurial is often perceived as dead despite continuing activity, especially after losing popularity to Git in the 2010s.
- •The presentation reviews historical events, contributor profiles, and technical and community factors that influenced Mercurial’s development path.
- •The talk uses Mercurial’s history to discuss the current and future state of version control and the ongoing relevance of community-based open-source development.