I discovered Nix recently while searching for a _build_ tool that isn't limited by binary-only or source-only dependencies. If anyone is interested here is a collection of my thoughts/findings.
https://bitbucket.org/cofarrell/one-build-tool/src/master/RE...
Would love to hear any feedback people have about the idea.
[Original blogger here]
I think there is much truth in what you say. It would be interesting to imagine what may have happened had Rails not gone with Git (and had GitHub not been so slick). I can't speak for anyone else, but for _me_ personally Git being more "powerful" was most definitely a deciding factor in switching from Mercurial. And then of course I've influenced people at the places I've worked to use it too, and so on...
"Better" is obviously a loose term as you point out; although I do think that there people who sometimes misunderstand Git. Like claiming it "changes" history and therefore it must be dangerous. I often find many people don't even know about the reflog, which I think is a crucial aspect of using Git and knowing that you're history is relatively safe once you commit. I suppose I'm hoping the article will dispel some of these myths, or at least paint a clearer picture.
I switched from LaTeX to reStructredText recently. While obviously not as powerful, it makes it much easier to edit. GitHub evens displays it semi-nicely for free.