4 ms·

And we're all happy CVS users.

by jeff_vader 3y ago

jmcqk6 3y ago
I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure there is no universe where that is true.
- drewg123 3y ago
  We'd all be happy perforce users :) (For a long time, before git and subversion, even though the official freebsd repo was in CVS, a lot of development happened in perforce)
  - bch 3y ago
    > a lot of development happened in perforce Interesting - that I didn’t know. Based on my personal p4 experience, I’m sorry anybody else had to use it. That said - nobody has mentioned that git (and hg) was preceded and directly inspired by Larry McVoys BitKeeper[0]. Indeed, I’ve heard rumor that both “git” and “mercurial” were named after people’s perceptions of others personalities during the Linux/BitKeeper breakup/debacle. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitKeeper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitKeeper
    - drewg123 3y ago
      It was a lot better than the alternatives at the time, which were CVS and SCCS.. :)
      - dmm10 3y ago
        Add RCS to that list.
  - bhasi 3y ago
    Still is, in some hardware companies.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
My understanding is that git and mercurial were created independently around the same time, so in a world where Torvalds didn't create git we'd probably all use hg. Although, it isn't super hard to imagine him still working in system software and eventually creating git under almost the same circumstances, just that it would be used on a BSD rather than Linux.
- walteweiss 3y ago
  I studied CS in the university and there was that guy who was a computer geek (out of very little among my fellow students), but actually was just your average gamer with close to zero knowledge of anything computer beyond double-clicking the shortcut to CS / Half-Life / WarCraft / Dota / whatever else was popular back then. I met him 15 years later. We had some casual chat about this and that. And at some point he said— Well, I have to give you a bit more of the context. He was a junior front-end (React, ofc) developer at that point. Yes, 15 years later! He just arrived into the profession due to his wild incompetence. Although he sold himself as a senior to the company! Still, he was very incompetent, and I had those wild eyes of wondering how on Earth some company would even hire such a guy, not to say giving him a senior role! He was talking about this front-end thing. That there’s that other OS, Ubuntu, and he thinks he’ll try it instead of Windows. As drumroll for some reason (for some reason!) this git thing works better on Ubuntu than it works on Windows. My first try of Linux was like 15 to 20 years before the talk, so I was like spilling my coffee on him with laughing. And here is your comment, casually pretending everyone on HN is aware of that history of git. And that it’s that git guy is somehow related to this Ubuntu thing, you know.
- ndiddy 3y ago
  Mercurial was also created by a Linux kernel developer, and started development a few days after Git (the reason was that Linux had previously been using BitKeeper for version control but BitKeeper stopped offering free licenses).
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    Oh, I hadn't realized they shared that history as well! Thanks for the correction
panick21_ 3y ago
Unlikely. Sun had NSElite in the 80s. BitKeeper and Teamware were available in the 90s. Somebody would make an open source version at some point.

And we're all happy CVS users.

jmcqk6 3y ago

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure there is no universe where that is true.

drewg123 3y ago
We'd all be happy perforce users :) (For a long time, before git and subversion, even though the official freebsd repo was in CVS, a lot of development happened in perforce)
- bch 3y ago
  > a lot of development happened in perforce Interesting - that I didn’t know. Based on my personal p4 experience, I’m sorry anybody else had to use it. That said - nobody has mentioned that git (and hg) was preceded and directly inspired by Larry McVoys BitKeeper[0]. Indeed, I’ve heard rumor that both “git” and “mercurial” were named after people’s perceptions of others personalities during the Linux/BitKeeper breakup/debacle. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitKeeper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitKeeper
  - drewg123 3y ago
    It was a lot better than the alternatives at the time, which were CVS and SCCS.. :)
    - dmm10 3y ago
      Add RCS to that list.
- bhasi 3y ago
  Still is, in some hardware companies.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

My understanding is that git and mercurial were created independently around the same time, so in a world where Torvalds didn't create git we'd probably all use hg. Although, it isn't super hard to imagine him still working in system software and eventually creating git under almost the same circumstances, just that it would be used on a BSD rather than Linux.

walteweiss 3y ago
I studied CS in the university and there was that guy who was a computer geek (out of very little among my fellow students), but actually was just your average gamer with close to zero knowledge of anything computer beyond double-clicking the shortcut to CS / Half-Life / WarCraft / Dota / whatever else was popular back then. I met him 15 years later. We had some casual chat about this and that. And at some point he said— Well, I have to give you a bit more of the context. He was a junior front-end (React, ofc) developer at that point. Yes, 15 years later! He just arrived into the profession due to his wild incompetence. Although he sold himself as a senior to the company! Still, he was very incompetent, and I had those wild eyes of wondering how on Earth some company would even hire such a guy, not to say giving him a senior role! He was talking about this front-end thing. That there’s that other OS, Ubuntu, and he thinks he’ll try it instead of Windows. As drumroll for some reason (for some reason!) this git thing works better on Ubuntu than it works on Windows. My first try of Linux was like 15 to 20 years before the talk, so I was like spilling my coffee on him with laughing. And here is your comment, casually pretending everyone on HN is aware of that history of git. And that it’s that git guy is somehow related to this Ubuntu thing, you know.
ndiddy 3y ago
Mercurial was also created by a Linux kernel developer, and started development a few days after Git (the reason was that Linux had previously been using BitKeeper for version control but BitKeeper stopped offering free licenses).
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  Oh, I hadn't realized they shared that history as well! Thanks for the correction

panick21_ 3y ago

Unlikely. Sun had NSElite in the 80s. BitKeeper and Teamware were available in the 90s. Somebody would make an open source version at some point.