[I started writing this in 2016 and unearthed it amongst some old drafts. But 6 years have only intensified my feelings here, so here it is updated and finished]

I’m sure you’ve all heard the statement from Arthur C. Clark that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” But I had an exchange which convinced me of a variation of that: “Any suffciently hyped technology is indistinguishable from religion.”

The case in point was a discussion with someone who seemed to think that Git was the only version control system which had checkin hooks. And after informing him that every modern version control system, indeed, every one of them I’ve used in the last two decades, has such things (in one way or another), he repeated the same thing later on in the conversation, as if unable to process this new piece of information which contradicted established dogma.

Another interaction was with someone who asserted that Git was “more secure”. When I questioned him as to exactly how it is more secure, we was unable to articulate anything meaningful. Then I pointed out that is was trivial to forge checkins (and even demonstrated it in front of him by doing a checkin in his name), but this didn’t phase him, and he returned, mindlessly, to his original point.

I have nothing against Git on the whole, I use it myself every day. I have minor gripes with it, mainly having to do with the arcane, counter-intuitive interface (like this). But my biggest gripe is the religious fervor with which it is hyped, the irrational one-size-fits-all, Maslow’s Hammer weilding, be-all and end-all, the perfect final pinacle of version control. For ever and ever. Amen!

There have been many “religious wars” in the software world over the years. Long ago I defected to the Emacs camp, so I know it well. But with all of those wars, there were always competing technologies; differing views on how to approach a problem. But in this case, there is only one left, all others have been shouted down into irrelevancy. At the time of Git’s ascendance, I was managing at least 6 different version control systems, and I thought this would just be one more to add to the mix. But I was mystified as my team was quickly sidelined as everyone mindlessly rushed to Git.

I am a believer in using the right tool for the right job, and Git is certainly the right tool in a lot of cases, but not every problem is a nail. Sometimes you need different tools.

I notice that I wrote about this earlier, but I am now taking the long view of this: every ascendant technology eventually declines as the next shiny thing attracts everyone’s attention. I look forward to the day something new comes along and pushes Git to the sidelines.