
 GitHub Desktop is now available  - bpierre
https://github.com/blog/2046-github-desktop-is-now-available
======
harel
Its a shame that a Linux version is not included. A significant volume of
developers work on Linux. If doing a multi platform application, why exclude
it?

~~~
Bulk70
As strange as it sounds the lack of a decent git GUI is one of the reasons I
don't feel comfortable using Linux as my main development environment (not the
only reason of course).

It's a big pitty neither Github nor Atlassian (the big "git" players, in my
mind) seem inclined to release a GUI client for Linux.

~~~
nanny
Try the Magit package for Emacs [1]. You don't have to know (much) Emacs to
use it, and it's a really great client.

[1]: [https://github.com/magit/magit](https://github.com/magit/magit)

~~~
zachlatta
Magit is AWESOME. It's easily saved me an hour each day (when using git
heavily).

~~~
agumonkey
Which parts do you enjoy the most ?

~~~
zachlatta
It's super easy to create a new branch and push it upstream (especially when
creating PRs).

I know I could write a script to do that for me, but there's something so nice
about having little things like that already baked in.

------
grandalf
Github probably considers the "depth" of git use by the average user to be one
of its KPIs. Git is extremely powerful, if you are only doing checkouts and
commits you are under-utilizing the tool and also underutilizing the service.

So it's smart for Github to build tools that lower the bar for a)
understanding git, and b) using git's more powerful features.

Useful metrics would be things like the percentage of users who use the pull
request flow, use it with at least one comment per pull request, have pull
requests that get revised, etc. etc.

I'd guess that part of the growth potential driving Github's valuation is the
notion that git's power features add significant productivity/value and that
github is uniquely positioned to let a significantly large number of
developers and teams make optimal use of those features for development and
collaboration.

~~~
arrmn
I'm a beginner here so sorry for if it's a stupid question. I work with
GitFlow and the only things I use are commits and checkouts, but for what do
you use Git?

About which powerful features are you talking about, does anyone have a link
with some more in depth informations?

~~~
coldpie
Some features I use: Cherry-picking commits across branches. Merging branches.
Rebases for forward-porting your work onto a new upstream. Bisects for
determining which commit introduced a bug. Push/pull for sharing. Format-patch
for sending patches around. Submodules.

~~~
pbowyer
Two of these I haven't done: Cherry-picking (well I did once, it went so wrong
I had to reset the repository), and Bisects. That sounds very useful.

~~~
coldpie
If you want to get a deeper understanding of what git's doing, read gitcore-
tutorial(7). It's pretty easy to understand git's internals, and once you know
them, it's easier to understand what the user commands are actually doing.
Then, if something goes wrong, it's much easier to recover.

------
jvehent
While I find this initiative fantastic, it's a bit frustrating that Github, a
company that lives on source code being open, does not publish the code of
tools like this one.

~~~
JohnTHaller
Github lives on companies and individuals that pay for private repositories
hosted on Github's proprietary (read: not open source) software-as-a-service
hosted infrastructure. While git itself is open source, almost nothing else
that Github does is open.

~~~
atonse
I consider these kinds of companies 2nd Generation Open Source companies ...
whereas the first generation of open source companies had an open source
product and made their money off maintenance, the 2nd gen often have a bunch
of components that are developed open source, but sell a closed source
glue/package of all those components.

Companies like CoreOS, Mesosphere, all fall under this umbrella, where you
could technically glue all their open source components together to form their
main product, but it would take you quite a bit of time to support.

Github is sort of like this. They contribute a ton to open source, and are
built mostly out of open source components (that ARE open source). But their
website is really just a glue to all their infrastructure, and that's closed
source.

~~~
joesmo
That's a really great summary. It's an interesting alternative way for
companies to produce a fair amount of open source contributions and still make
money. I can definitely see this with other companies including ones that
specialize in continuous integration and other services that developers are
interested in.

------
insulanian
I tried GitHub for Windows but found it a bit dumbed down. Switched over to
Atlasian's Source Tree and never looked back.

~~~
cname
SourceTree is really nice overall. To name a few things, I prefer its view of
history, its hunk selection UI, and its commit message box (GitHub's is tiny
and can't be made much bigger). It's also nice that it supports Mercurial.

I had some problems with it keeping changes synced with the file system,
though (on Mac OS). E.g., I'd change something in my editor and SourceTree
wouldn't pick it up until I reopened the repository in SourceTree.

I also prefer a single window like GitHub's app, but that is a minor
annoyance. The non-syncing made SourceTree unusable after a while, and I went
back to GitHub for Mac.

I wish Atlassian would put out an update, because I'd prefer to switch back.

~~~
nevi-me
Every week or 3 when I restart my machine and reopen SourceTree, it tells me
that there's an update. Maybe the issue that you're talking about hasn't been
logged or they're not working on it.

I'll try GH Desktop, but for the past few months mine's been broken where it
loses my repos, so I've been using ST exclusively :)

~~~
cname
Are you on Windows? I'm pretty sure the Mac version hasn't been updated in
quite some time. I just downloaded a fresh copy, and it's the same version I
downloaded a while back: 2.0.5.2.

------
BoppreH
Is this related to the recent Github For Windows redesign? It used to be a
great product, but the last version made some really odd UI changes and the
whole thing became 10x slower.

Github For Windows used to be as important to my workflow as my code editor. I
absolutely loved the "click to select which lines to commit" feature, and I'm
pretty sure it improved the quality of my commits drastically. And it was
constantly improving.

A few weeks ago came a new version that changed everything. Previous updates
used to be incremental, but this one seemed to replace everything at once.
Overall the UI was still good, even though important parts became hidden
behind tabs. But the performance... Oh god the performance. Syncing repos
became a multi-minute operation. Listing commits went from instantaneous to
taking several seconds. It became so unusable I switched back to Linux for
development.

------
mwcampbell
The Windows app is still WPF-based and still uses ClickOnce for its installer.
The web page claims that this is a new unified app, replacing GitHub for Mac
and GitHub for Windows. But it seems to me that there are still two separate
apps. I had expected something like a desktop app using web technologies via
Electron, like Atom.

~~~
kitsunesoba
Please no. GitHub for Mac is an extremely solid, smooth, light little native
app and I would hate to see it vanish in favor of a heavy chromium-based
monstrosity. I don't use Windows but if I did I'd prefer a WPF or .NET app
over a chrome wrapper there, too.

Common core+separate native UIs will always be the best sort of cross platform
app in my eyes.

~~~
mwcampbell
I'm sure you're right about a native Cocoa app feeling nicer than a Chromium-
based one. But on Windows, WPF is notorious for poor performance; a Chromium-
based app might actually be better on that platform.

~~~
kitsunesoba
Would .NET be preferable to WPF?

~~~
WorldWideWayne
WPF is a .NET GUI framework. WinForms is too, but it's a simple wrapper for
the Win32 API, so it performs much better.

~~~
kitsunesoba
Thanks for the clarification!

------
bluetidepro
When I saw "Desktop" in the name, I was really hoping this also brought some
of the web features to the app. Things such as being able to view/edit the
wiki, or issues of the repo. I wonder if that is in their long term plans for
the app at all? That would be really awesome.

~~~
prayerslayer
So much this.

Github for Mac is quite good already for commiting and pull-requesting. I
could stop using my browser (for Github, at least) if they put issue
management (open, close, view, comments) in there too. Would be awesome and a
more unified experience.

------
XzetaU8
"Why don't you support the Linux platform?

At this time, we're focused on optimizing the Mac and Windows experience.
We're always thinking about potential improvements for the diverse needs of
our users, though!"

[https://help.github.com/desktop/faq/articles/why-don-t-
you-s...](https://help.github.com/desktop/faq/articles/why-don-t-you-support-
the-linux-platform/)

Something tells me that the Linux version will come up later.

~~~
thawkins
Once the universe has cooled to absolute zero, that is a corporate non answer.
"Go away" dressed up in a party frock.

------
rjv
I'd love to see more development in the Git GUI space; a GUI really enabled
git adoption and comprehension on my team. SourceTree has been my go-to for
over a year now and it generally gets the job done, but it can be flakey at
times (on Windows) and it seems like Atlassian has taken a hiatus from active
development. I hope Atlassian takes up the reins again - this tool is pretty
essential for me and I'd be happy to pay for it.

~~~
kannonboy
I'm Tim, a dev at Atlassian. I just thought I'd chime in to let you know we
are absolutely taking up the reins on SourceTree again! In fact, we're in the
process of growing out our team. You can read a little more about it on the ST
blog from earlier this year: [http://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/2015/02/25/were-
just-getting-s...](http://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/2015/02/25/were-just-getting-
started-with-sourcetree). We are aware of the performance issues affecting
Windows users with certain repository shapes and have our backlog prioritized
accordingly.

I haven't had much of a chance to play with GitHub Desktop yet, but it can
only be a good thing for the users of all Git clients - nothing like a bit of
healthy competition :) However, SourceTree's focus will remain on providing
the best possible experience for professional teams using Git (and Mercurial).

------
cenaymer
I've heard numerous times that Linux's lackluster popularity is due 'chicken
and egg' problem in the application space. If a company that gets the maximum
possible percentage of Linux users is not willing to support the application
for Linux then we can't expect anyone else will even attempt. May be because
Linux users are 'smarter' and better off with CLI ;)

------
the_ancient
For Mac or Windows....

it is just insulting that GitHub continues to Treat linux has a second class
citizen when with out Linux Git would not be a project...

~~~
comboy
In their defense, I don't see many linux users choosing GUI app over command
line to handle git (unless they have it integrated in their IDE)

~~~
mhw
I use git primarily on Linux, but I don't use an IDE. I frequently use 'git
gui' to prepare commits - I particularly like the ability to select individual
lines from a diff to include in a commit, breaking apart multiple changes to
the same file when necessary. I also use gitk a lot. I'm very comfortable
using the command line, but it's not correct to assume that command line users
wouldn't want a GUI tool as well.

------
lucisferre
My initial impression is that I like it, but I'm confused what "git sync" is.
I've never done a "sync" before so I'm uncertain what will happen when I click
the button.

Seriously, I get it, people don't love git's choice of verbs and syntax.
Picking different ones arbitrarily helps no one however.

------
krisgenre
Hmm.. are there really no good cross platform GUI toolkits? Why is Linux being
ignored often even by companies that target developers?

~~~
kitsunesoba
I'd say that part of the problem is that there is no "right" way to develop
for Linux. There's a multitude of choices available at every turn when
developing software for Linux, and while this is its strength, it's also its
weakness. On Windows and especially OS X there are established "right ways"
that can easily be deferred to.

Trying to provide support for Linux software could also potentially be
nightmarish given the innumerable factors at play. There's no end to the
number of ways any given Linux box may be set up.

~~~
krisgenre
But Github has electron (atom shell) :-). Maybe it's not mature enough for
production yet :-)

~~~
kitsunesoba
The problem with Electron (and other Chromium/WebKit wrappers) is that they
produce apps that are a lot heavier than those built with native UI toolkits
(Cocoa, Qt, GTK+, etc). That might be ok for some types of apps, but I
wouldn’t want a git client that requires resources on the order of a Chrome
tab (300MB+ memory and high CPU usage).

------
nwienert
I've always wanted something where I can see the status of all my projects at
once:

\- Have other people committed things to origin on any of my repos?

\- Do I have uncommitted changes on any of my repos?

\- Notifications for when people push

Basically this but focusing more on collaboration.

~~~
shurcooL
> \- Do I have uncommitted changes on any of my repos?

I wanted to know that too, so I made
[https://github.com/shurcooL/gostatus](https://github.com/shurcooL/gostatus)
for my Go repos.

------
jaytaylor
This is confusing to me. Why is it "GitHub Desktop is now available" rather
"GitHub Desktop App Updated"?

What is actually new here? I know the native GitHub GUI app has been available
for a number of years before now.

------
AdmiralAsshat
Can't access my Windows desktop to look now, but I thought I've had Github
Desktop running on my PC for awhile now. Was this previously in beta?

------
leeoniya
i wish they would make a decent mobile web interface, the current one is just
painful to use. i always have to switch to desktop mode.

~~~
farresito
Yes, the mobile web interface is quite bad. I mean, it's not horrible; it does
the most basic things, but it requires more than one click to see very
important things, like commit messages.

------
cshimmin
Can I do anything with this that I can't already do from the website, or is it
just the same tools with a nicer native UI? In other words, is this somehow
bridging the gap between the site and the git CLI (which could be useful for
some of my less tech-savvy collaborators)?

------
bamazizi
What's the advantage to SourceTree? aside from nicer ui.

I wish it had the code review, commenting, issue tracking of the web app in a
desktop application, all in one place. It's a pain to move constantly between
the editor, CLI/SourceTree and Github web app for everyday tasks.

~~~
marpstar
I don't even think that this new client supports anything but GitHub. Their
previous Windows client didn't.

~~~
qcz
Yes, it did, but it had very basic functionality. The new client still
supports non-GitHub repositories (tried with private GitLab repos).

------
paublyrne
I've been using Github on Mac for a while now. It won't do all the fancy
things that the CLI will, but I love it for the ability to break up large
bunches of files into separate commits, for when I forget to commit for a
while or my local repo gets a little messy.

~~~
TsiCClawOfLight
Isn't this something you could do easily via an IDE or, say, magit?

------
koyote
So does anyone know what they used to build the 'unified' app UI? If I
remember rightly they used WPF on Windows in earlier versions. Is the UI now
abstracted using a third-party framework/inhouse framework?

~~~
xd1936
If it's using WPF, does that mean that it requires .NET?

~~~
skeletonjelly
Yep. Though AFAIK .NET is included with Windows these days

------
lewisl9029
I've been using the beta for a while and have found it to be quite nice.

Simple operations are quick and intuitive. If you need anything more advanced,
a git shell for the current project is just 2 clicks away.

Having all the visual diffs readily available in the client before committing
is quite convenient, as is being able to push your branch and open a pull
request for it at the press of a button.

I'm hoping issues and PR management is next on the plate. You can open PRs
from the client right now, but to review and merge them you'd still need to
open a browser.

------
toxican
Hasn't this been available for a while now? I know I'd been using it for at
least a few months up until recently. I made the switch to Sourcetree the
other day and haven't looked back. I never realize how infuriating not being
able to see changes in a repo at a glance without clicking into it was until I
suddenly could.

Can't speak to any more advanced differences though. I'm still very, very new
to git.

------
untilHellbanned
What to do with the scary message? Does this affect the OS version of git or
just the version that this Github application uses?

    
    
        OS X 10.9 and later includes Git, so GitHub Desktop will no longer install Git as part of its command line tools.
    
        The version of Git you have installed through GitHub Desktop is no longer supported. It's recommended that you uninstall it as soon as possible.

------
jschulenklopper
I wonder why, after downloading and installing the GitHub Desktop application
I should use my GitHub account and password to connect the client to GitHub
(with no other way available)?

Would it not have been better if GitHub Desktop was a seperate application
that gets permissions (for example via OAuth 2.0) as an application in the
"Authorized applications" section of the GitHub profile?

Or am I missing something here?

------
rcarmo
There's an UX/affordance issue with merges.

Took me a while to figure out how do do them via the UI, it's not immediately
obvious that the side pane (which tries to take you to the web site for
submitting pull requests) has nothing to do with local merges, which are now
accomplished via an option that only appears when you're comparing branches
(on the new timeline/graph thingy).

------
porker
Is there a way to clone BitBucket repositories from inside Github Desktop? It
looks like they've locked it down to clone from Github only.

~~~
Fiskie
There doesn't seem to be a way to do so, but if you open a repository cloned
elsewhere everything works just fine. It even prompts for your Bitbucket
password if you try to push.

------
msluyter
Just downloaded it and tried it out. Looks pretty nice, but the history view
isn't populating when I try to use it for github enterprise projects (I did
login successfully). I'm just seeing a completely black rectangle and no
commits.

One theory I have is that our default upstream branch isn't master, but I'm
not sure where to set that in the app. Anyone else noticed this?

------
boardwaalk
Well, that update turned the app into flickering, unresponsive mess on my Mac
(10.11). And I have to use some sort of old school contact form to report a
bug to _GitHub_? I'm a bit incredulous.

I like GitHub for the basic "see what you're committing and commit it" work
flow, using the command line otherwise, but I suppose I'll switch to
Sourcetree for now.

------
kstenerud
Oh wonderful. Installed it, and now none of the git repos I pointed it to are
recognized by git command line anymore :/

------
andyfleming
I really like the GitHub desktop app. Although, I honestly I could care less
about the fancy new graph feature. I would rather they had added a couple of
simpler, more useful features:

• the ability to organize repos by organization or with custom folders/lists

• the option to open a repo in a new window by right-clicking on one from the
list in the left column

------
xirdstl
I use Atlassian Sourcetree as a git GUI on Windows. Does GitHub Desktop do
anything different / better?

~~~
Fiskie
The client itself is very streamlined. Push/Pull operations are swept into a
single Sync operation. Merging is as easy as selecting a branch from a
dropdown and clicking a button. Things like that.

On the downside, utilities like tagging, blame and stash do not seem to exist.
The account linking system from the old GitHub client hasn't changed and you
can't clone from anywhere that isn't GitHub. Revision history is a bit ~too~
simplified and you can't really see at a glance what branches are deriving
from where, and you can only see the history of one branch at a time.

I'm sure newbie developers on Github might appreciate the simplified UX/UI,
but it's missing a ton of features that are useful in an environment with
multiple devs.

~~~
bronson
> Push/Pull operations are swept into a single Sync operation.

This feature drove me nuts with their old client. One day they're going to
realize that it throws away a very useful Git feature.

A few years ago we tried setting up marketing's content creators on the Mac
GitHub client. After that, far too many conversations went like this:

"Try pulling the new changes."

"Um... pull?"

"Right, sorry, forgot. Hit sync to pull down the new changes."

"But won't that push my mods?"

"I suppose... I don't know."

"I don't want to push my stuff yet."

"OK, dammit. Open a terminal..."

------
shurcooL
The new layout looks great!

But there's an immediately obvious bug, the middle pane keeps resizing to
become wider every time you switch between repos.

Also, one large repo I had simply shows 0 commits. It worked just fine before.
And another even larger repo works fine.

~~~
shurcooL
An update, I tried to remove the problematic git repo and re-added it, and now
history shows up okay.

------
tychuz
It has been out for a while (I guess in beta form), atleast for Windows.

Still using GitExtensions. This has a nice interface for hobby projects, but
when working with "enterprise" huge projects at work - it lags noticeably.

------
nedludd
What's the difference between this and the former "Github" app?

------
yeldarb
The new tutorial is pretty spiffy. It teaches you the branch-commit-pull
request workflow by actually taking you through the process on a mock repo!

------
gideon_b
I was really hoping this would be a native app for the collaborative/social
aspects of github.

------
justboxing
In Options -> Privacy, why is the 'Help us improve by sending anonymous usage
data' checked by default?

Shouldn't it be opt-in and not opt-out?

------
jchomali
This is awesome!

------
gcb0
those wankers should work on getting diffs to actually show on their site.

hate when i have to code review some contributor and the site just says "oh, i
will not bother showing any change on that file"... so i have to download
their branch, run diff on the awesome `meld`, which kicks their visualization
anyway, but then the only good thing about github: inline comments on code
reviews... goes away. i have to either email or add lose comments on the code
review panel with what i think.

but hey, now we can have the same crappy experience on (selected) desktops!
hooray! well, at least you managed to get me to write an offense on a public
forum. that is something. you wankers.

