In a recent YouTube video by Theo, cofounder of GitHub, he discussed an article comparing GitHub and SourceForge. Reflecting on the rise of GitHub, he touched on the importance of timing and good taste. GitHub’s approach to developer experience and creativity set them apart from competitors like SourceForge and Google Code. Open source projects were growing rapidly in the mid-2000s, and GitHub capitalized on the need for a user-centric, easy-to-use version control system. Git, with its fast performance and simplified permissions, became a hit among developers. GitHub’s appeal to the Ruby community played a significant role in Git’s eventual dominance over Mercurial, leading to GitHub’s hosting dominance.
https://blog.gitbutler.com/why-github-actually-won/