# Mercurial was invented by andrew, then why Linus needs to create GIT

When BitMover, the company that developed BitKeeper, changed the terms of the free version of its license agreement in 2005, the Linux community, led by Linus Torvalds, was looking for a replacement version control system. While Andrew Tridgell had developed Mercurial as a free and open-source alternative to BitKeeper, Linus Torvalds and other members of the Linux community decided to develop their own version control system, Git.

Git was designed to be similar to BitKeeper in functionality, but it was released under an open-source license. This made it suitable for the Linux community, which values open-source software. Additionally, Git was developed by Linus Torvalds himself and other Linux developers, which made it more suitable for the Linux kernel development.

Mercurial is a great version control system, but at that time, the Linux community chose to use Git because it was developed by the community itself, and it was more suitable for their needs. Moreover, Git's development was closely tied to the Linux kernel development, which made it easier to adopt and integrate with the Linux development process.

Also, Git was developed with **Linux kernel maintenance** in mind. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, and other members of the Linux community began developing Git in 2005 as a replacement for **BitKeeper**, which was the primary version control system for Linux kernel development at the time. The changes to the terms of service of **BitKeeper**'s license agreement made the free version of **BitKeeper** no longer suitable for the Linux kernel development, and that's when Linus Torvalds and other Linux developers decided to create a new version control system.

Git was specifically designed to meet the needs of the Linux kernel development process, which involves large numbers of developers working on a large codebase with frequent releases. It was also designed to be fast, efficient, and able to handle large binary files.

Git is designed to be distributed and decentralized, which allows multiple developers to work on the same codebase simultaneously, and it allows them to easily share their changes with each other. Git also has a powerful branching and merging feature which makes it easy for developers to work on multiple features or bug fixes at the same time, and it allows them to easily merge their changes back into the main codebase.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://courses.parottasalna.com/git/what-is-a-version-control-system/mercurial-was-invented-by-andrew-then-why-linus-needs-to-create-git.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.