The key difference is that, unlike text editors, version control systems have substantial network effects.
That's not entirely true, in the sense that popular editors tend to have more extensions, syntax highlighting for more languages, auto-completion, etc... That helps draw in more users.
I just don't see where people would be having the same experience with Mercurial.
Well, there's bitbucket. IIRC some programming language communities have standardized on even more off-mainstream VCS.
But yeah, on the whole Git got an advantage in users somewhere along the way, and that's now self-reinforcing. It helps that there's no competition that's obviously better.
That's not entirely true, in the sense that popular editors tend to have more extensions, syntax highlighting for more languages, auto-completion, etc... That helps draw in more users.
I just don't see where people would be having the same experience with Mercurial.
Well, there's bitbucket. IIRC some programming language communities have standardized on even more off-mainstream VCS.
But yeah, on the whole Git got an advantage in users somewhere along the way, and that's now self-reinforcing. It helps that there's no competition that's obviously better.