{"slug": "mercurial", "name": "Mercurial", "category": "git", "category_name": "Git and code hosting", "description": "Distributed version control system written mainly in Python, an alternative to Git.", "recommenders": 10, "commenters": 12, "warners": 0, "score": 9.53, "rising": -0.62, "first": "2026-01-12", "latest": "2026-09-10", "why": "HN commenters like Mercurial for its simpler UX and clearer mental model than Git, and for the TortoiseHg GUI.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 10, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 5, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Simpler UX", "Team satisfaction"], "caveat": "Git dominance", "short_quote": "We use mercurial and are happy with it. I hope we never move to git", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.mercurial-scm.org/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Mercurial"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Mercurial for its simpler UX and clearer mental model than Git", "cites": [{"id": 770747008, "item_id": 48171688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171688", "by": "macro-b", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I loved it, much simpler and more clear than the typical workflows I have to deal with in git.", "excerpt": "At my previous big tech employer we used to have a mercurial layer on top of our legacy version control system. I loved it, much simpler and more clear than the typical workflows I have to deal with in git. I get it that with git you have more power, but do really most teams need that?", "context": "former big tech employee", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 750714656, "item_id": 46919666, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919666", "by": "avaer", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me.", "excerpt": "This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think", "context": "former Mercurial user", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI"}, {"id": 770831760, "item_id": 48176985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "by": "garganzol", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday.", "excerpt": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday. While I use Git for hobby projects, it does not cut it in terms of ease of use. Some newer SCM systems like jj look promising, but absence of tools like TortoiseHg undermines their possible adoption.", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}]}, {"text": ", and for the TortoiseHg GUI.", "cites": [{"id": 770831760, "item_id": 48176985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "by": "garganzol", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday.", "excerpt": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday. While I use Git for hobby projects, it does not cut it in terms of ease of use. Some newer SCM systems like jj look promising, but absence of tools like TortoiseHg undermines their possible adoption.", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 768102560, "item_id": 48006410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006410", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love(d)  Mercurial", "excerpt": "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Atlassian had stuck with Mercurial support on Bitbucket - I don't think they can pretend that switching to git did very much for them. I love(d) Mercurial, and particularly TortoiseHg integration on Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveat is that Git's dominance pushed projects and hosts like Bitbucket away from it", "cites": [{"id": 770783328, "item_id": 48173958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173958", "by": "jedberg", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We actually preferred it", "excerpt": "We used Mercurial at reddit. We switched to it shortly after switching to Python as our main language, figuring it would be easier to use the one written in Python. We used Mercurial until the day we went open source. We actually preferred it, but we knew at that point that \"everyone\" used Git, and we would never be seen as serious or get user contributions unless we switched. That was back in 2008. [0] We actually s", "context": "worked at reddit", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 768102560, "item_id": 48006410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006410", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love(d)  Mercurial", "excerpt": "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Atlassian had stuck with Mercurial support on Bitbucket - I don't think they can pretend that switching to git did very much for them. I love(d) Mercurial, and particularly TortoiseHg integration on Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control"}, {"id": 750714656, "item_id": 46919666, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919666", "by": "avaer", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me.", "excerpt": "This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think", "context": "former Mercurial user", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI"}]}, {"text": ", leaving it more of a past favorite for some.", "cites": [{"id": 789677521, "item_id": 49354845, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354845", "by": "jm4", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Mercurial was pretty nice back in the day", "excerpt": "There's other stuff out there. You don't have to use it except when you're working with someone who does and there are other systems with some compatibility for that exact scenario. Git became popular because Linus Torvalds created it and it's used for the Linux kernel. If it can succeed there then it's battle proven for sure and that's why people pick it. Almost no one is working at that scale though so don't sweat ", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor launches Origin, GitHub alternative"}, {"id": 768102560, "item_id": 48006410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006410", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love(d)  Mercurial", "excerpt": "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Atlassian had stuck with Mercurial support on Bitbucket - I don't think they can pretend that switching to git did very much for them. I love(d) Mercurial, and particularly TortoiseHg integration on Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Simpler UX", "summary": "Commenters find its workflows and mental model simpler and clearer than Git's.", "quotes": [{"id": 770747008, "item_id": 48171688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171688", "by": "macro-b", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I loved it, much simpler and more clear than the typical workflows I have to deal with in git.", "excerpt": "At my previous big tech employer we used to have a mercurial layer on top of our legacy version control system. I loved it, much simpler and more clear than the typical workflows I have to deal with in git. I get it that with git you have more power, but do really most teams need that?", "context": "former big tech employee", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 750714656, "item_id": 46919666, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919666", "by": "avaer", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me.", "excerpt": "This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think", "context": "former Mercurial user", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI"}, {"id": 770831760, "item_id": 48176985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "by": "garganzol", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday.", "excerpt": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday. While I use Git for hobby projects, it does not cut it in terms of ease of use. Some newer SCM systems like jj look promising, but absence of tools like TortoiseHg undermines their possible adoption.", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}]}, {"label": "Team satisfaction", "summary": "Teams that used it report being happy with it and preferring it to Git.", "quotes": [{"id": 745400912, "item_id": 46587557, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46587557", "by": "jgalt212", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We use mercurial and are happy with it. I hope we never move to git", "excerpt": "We use mercurial and are happy with it. I hope we never move to git, but I can see us eventually moving to whatever is next.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fossil versus Git"}, {"id": 770783328, "item_id": 48173958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173958", "by": "jedberg", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We actually preferred it", "excerpt": "We used Mercurial at reddit. We switched to it shortly after switching to Python as our main language, figuring it would be easier to use the one written in Python. We used Mercurial until the day we went open source. We actually preferred it, but we knew at that point that \"everyone\" used Git, and we would never be seen as serious or get user contributions unless we switched. That was back in 2008. [0] We actually s", "context": "worked at reddit", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 770831760, "item_id": 48176985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "by": "garganzol", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday.", "excerpt": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday. While I use Git for hobby projects, it does not cut it in terms of ease of use. Some newer SCM systems like jj look promising, but absence of tools like TortoiseHg undermines their possible adoption.", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}]}, {"label": "TortoiseHg", "summary": "The TortoiseHg GUI, especially on Windows, is a valued part of the tooling.", "quotes": [{"id": 768102560, "item_id": 48006410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006410", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love(d)  Mercurial", "excerpt": "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Atlassian had stuck with Mercurial support on Bitbucket - I don't think they can pretend that switching to git did very much for them. I love(d) Mercurial, and particularly TortoiseHg integration on Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control"}, {"id": 770831760, "item_id": 48176985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "by": "garganzol", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday.", "excerpt": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday. While I use Git for hobby projects, it does not cut it in terms of ease of use. Some newer SCM systems like jj look promising, but absence of tools like TortoiseHg undermines their possible adoption.", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}]}, {"label": "Branching model", "summary": "Its branches are stored in commit metadata, which one commenter says Git cannot do.", "quotes": [{"id": 764328273, "item_id": 47770517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770517", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "unlike mercurial, git is incapable of storing this in its commit metadata", "excerpt": "> I think there are (or perhaps were) some product issues regarding the specifics of various workflows. I love jumping in discussions about git branching, because that's a very objective and practical area where git made the playing field worse. Less and less people feel it, because people old-enough to have used branch-powered VCSes have long forgotten about them, and those who didn't forget are under-represented in", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Stacked PRs"}]}, {"label": "Storage and large files", "summary": "Its storage model speeds up bisecting and long-distance jumps, and the largefiles extension predates git-lfs.", "quotes": [{"id": 763735568, "item_id": 47733473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47733473", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "give hg a shot", "excerpt": "This isn't an apology or a deflection, but different VCSes strike different trade-offs in terms of speed per workload. The mercurial storage model is comparable to video encoding in that it has a somewhat equivalent of \"key frames\" and alternates differential and full revisions\u00b9. This makes workloads like bisecting or jumping to long-distance commits more efficient, at the expense of the time to create new commits. F", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "Git", "story": "We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Git dominance", "summary": "Teams switched to Git to attract contributors and follow what everyone else used.", "quotes": [{"id": 770783328, "item_id": 48173958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173958", "by": "jedberg", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We actually preferred it", "excerpt": "We used Mercurial at reddit. We switched to it shortly after switching to Python as our main language, figuring it would be easier to use the one written in Python. We used Mercurial until the day we went open source. We actually preferred it, but we knew at that point that \"everyone\" used Git, and we would never be seen as serious or get user contributions unless we switched. That was back in 2008. [0] We actually s", "context": "worked at reddit", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 750714656, "item_id": 46919666, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919666", "by": "avaer", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me.", "excerpt": "This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think", "context": "former Mercurial user", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI"}]}, {"label": "Hosting support", "summary": "Bitbucket dropped Mercurial support.", "quotes": [{"id": 768102560, "item_id": 48006410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006410", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love(d)  Mercurial", "excerpt": "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Atlassian had stuck with Mercurial support on Bitbucket - I don't think they can pretend that switching to git did very much for them. I love(d) Mercurial, and particularly TortoiseHg integration on Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control"}]}, {"label": "Slower commits", "summary": "Its storage model trades slower commit creation for faster history navigation.", "quotes": [{"id": 763735568, "item_id": 47733473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47733473", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "give hg a shot", "excerpt": "This isn't an apology or a deflection, but different VCSes strike different trade-offs in terms of speed per workload. The mercurial storage model is comparable to video encoding in that it has a somewhat equivalent of \"key frames\" and alternates differential and full revisions\u00b9. This makes workloads like bisecting or jumping to long-distance commits more efficient, at the expense of the time to create new commits. F", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "Git", "story": "We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git"}]}], "who": [{"by": "invader", "context": "game developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48977208", "date": "2026-07-20"}, {"by": "garganzol", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "date": "2026-05-18"}, {"by": "jedberg", "context": "worked at reddit", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173958", "date": "2026-05-17"}, {"by": "macro-b", "context": "former big tech employee", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171688", "date": "2026-05-17"}, {"by": "avaer", "context": "former Mercurial user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919666", "date": "2026-02-06"}], "tags": ["for teams", "for Windows users", "for large files"], "use_cases": ["version control", "tracking every file save", "code version control"], "compared": [{"slug": "git", "name": "Git", "co": 15, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "jujutsu", "name": "Jujutsu", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "subversion", "name": "Subversion", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "svn", "name": "SVN", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tortoisehg", "name": "TortoiseHg", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "fossil", "name": "Fossil", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48147351", "title": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49603265", "title": "Version control second coming", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334209", "title": "Cursor launches Origin, GitHub alternative", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49187256", "title": "Zed DeltaDB", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48965886", "title": "Perforce charges $500 for training training videos.. and it's AI narrated", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151664", "title": "Git Is Not Fine", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 5}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 794235744, "item_id": 49639734, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49639734", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If I had the option I would still be using either Mercurial or SVN.", "excerpt": "What second coming? If I had the option I would still be using either Mercurial or SVN. In fact, the way I use Git is hardly any different, I have no interest in getting a black belt in git magic.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Version control second coming"}, {"id": 789677521, "item_id": 49354845, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354845", "by": "jm4", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Mercurial was pretty nice back in the day", "excerpt": "There's other stuff out there. You don't have to use it except when you're working with someone who does and there are other systems with some compatibility for that exact scenario. Git became popular because Linus Torvalds created it and it's used for the Linux kernel. If it can succeed there then it's battle proven for sure and that's why people pick it. Almost no one is working at that scale though so don't sweat ", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor launches Origin, GitHub alternative"}, {"id": 787049856, "item_id": 49190616, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49190616", "by": "zeroq", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I decided to install mercurial and made a hook which made a dummy commit every time I saved a file.", "excerpt": "tangent Once I've tried one SCM to track every single change to my files, and the other for bulk commits. The result was quite satisfying. It was some 15 years ago, we just switched from CVS to SVN and everyone thought it was the end of the history, at least for SCMs. Main branch was called master, and we were locking files by simply telling our teammates not to touch them. At one time I decided I really missed the E", "context": "", "use_case": "tracking every file save", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zed DeltaDB"}, {"id": 783635331, "item_id": 48977208, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48977208", "by": "invader", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We used SVN and later git/mercurial for code.", "excerpt": "Not Blizzard. A French game developer and publisher that has been defunct for many years now. But even then, I remember talking to colleagues from other studios and many used Alienbrain - primarily for art assets. We used SVN and later git/mercurial for code. Since Alienbrain was quite popular back then, I assume they are still around now. Given that git still has no out-of-the-box facilities to handle large binaries", "context": "game developer", "use_case": "code version control", "switched_from": "Subversion", "story": "Perforce charges $500 for training training videos.. and it's AI narrated"}, {"id": 770831760, "item_id": 48176985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176985", "by": "garganzol", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday.", "excerpt": "We support Mercurial project financially and we use it everyday. While I use Git for hobby projects, it does not cut it in terms of ease of use. Some newer SCM systems like jj look promising, but absence of tools like TortoiseHg undermines their possible adoption.", "context": "Company that uses Mercurial daily", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 770783328, "item_id": 48173958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173958", "by": "jedberg", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We actually preferred it", "excerpt": "We used Mercurial at reddit. We switched to it shortly after switching to Python as our main language, figuring it would be easier to use the one written in Python. We used Mercurial until the day we went open source. We actually preferred it, but we knew at that point that \"everyone\" used Git, and we would never be seen as serious or get user contributions unless we switched. That was back in 2008. [0] We actually s", "context": "worked at reddit", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 770747008, "item_id": 48171688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171688", "by": "macro-b", "date": "2026-05-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I loved it, much simpler and more clear than the typical workflows I have to deal with in git.", "excerpt": "At my previous big tech employer we used to have a mercurial layer on top of our legacy version control system. I loved it, much simpler and more clear than the typical workflows I have to deal with in git. I get it that with git you have more power, but do really most teams need that?", "context": "former big tech employee", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mercurial, 20 years and counting: how are we still alive and kicking? [video]"}, {"id": 770471616, "item_id": 48154476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48154476", "by": "vintagedave", "date": "2026-05-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Based on Mercurial\u2026 the VCS I enjoyed using.", "excerpt": "I admit the diagrams and struggles the author describes are far past my own usage of git. And like they identify at the end of the article, for truly complex git operations today I use AI. I haven\u2019t rebased manually for a while. Forget rewriting commit messages! > Companies like Meta have enjoyed in-house systems that run circles around it for almost a decade. Based on Mercurial\u2026 the VCS I enjoyed using.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Git Is Not Fine"}, {"id": 768102560, "item_id": 48006410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48006410", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love(d)  Mercurial", "excerpt": "I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Atlassian had stuck with Mercurial support on Bitbucket - I don't think they can pretend that switching to git did very much for them. I love(d) Mercurial, and particularly TortoiseHg integration on Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control"}, {"id": 764328273, "item_id": 47770517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770517", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "unlike mercurial, git is incapable of storing this in its commit metadata", "excerpt": "> I think there are (or perhaps were) some product issues regarding the specifics of various workflows. I love jumping in discussions about git branching, because that's a very objective and practical area where git made the playing field worse. Less and less people feel it, because people old-enough to have used branch-powered VCSes have long forgotten about them, and those who didn't forget are under-represented in", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Stacked PRs"}, {"id": 763735568, "item_id": 47733473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47733473", "by": "ezst", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "give hg a shot", "excerpt": "This isn't an apology or a deflection, but different VCSes strike different trade-offs in terms of speed per workload. The mercurial storage model is comparable to video encoding in that it has a somewhat equivalent of \"key frames\" and alternates differential and full revisions\u00b9. This makes workloads like bisecting or jumping to long-distance commits more efficient, at the expense of the time to create new commits. F", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "Git", "story": "We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git"}, {"id": 750714656, "item_id": 46919666, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46919666", "by": "avaer", "date": "2026-02-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me.", "excerpt": "This feels like the time I was a Mercurial user before I moved to Git. Everyone was using git for reasons to me that seemed bandwagon-y, when Mercurial just had such a better UX and mental model to me. Now, everyone is writing agent `exec`s in Python, when I think TypeScript/JS is far better suited for the job (it was always fast + secure, not to mention more reliable and information dense b/c of typing). But I think", "context": "former Mercurial user", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI"}, {"id": 745400912, "item_id": 46587557, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46587557", "by": "jgalt212", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We use mercurial and are happy with it. I hope we never move to git", "excerpt": "We use mercurial and are happy with it. I hope we never move to git, but I can see us eventually moving to whatever is next.", "context": "", "use_case": "version control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fossil versus Git"}]}