
New SourceTree is here - gitdude
http://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/2016/02/22/sourcetree-update-atlassian-account-git-lfs-support-ui-refresh-and-more/
======
iLoch
I usually try to be positive but these changes don't look good. It looks like
some overzealous designer started making UX decisions they weren't qualified
to make and now the app is unusable.

I'm a huge SourceTree fan - I use it exclusively for Git, but I won't be
upgrading until these obvious UX problems have been addressed.

Edit: Also, why do the OS X and Windows versions look so different?!? The
buttons aren't even in the same places!

Edit 2: I don't like how negative I was in my initial post. I'm going to give
it a try, maybe I'll be surprised.

Edit 3: So I just opened it up.. I think the spacing has been improved
substantially. Individual components feel more polished, certainly. The
biggest problem though is that the entire app feels like it's defocused
because it's all grey. The only colour in the entire application comes from
the pale blue used to colour the folders. Pretty lame. The whole UI just feels
very drab now. Other than the lack of colour though, it looks better.

~~~
m_eiman
_Also, why do the OS X and Windows versions look so different?!? The buttons
aren 't even in the same places!_

Different platforms have different conventions and guidelines. Having both
versions look and act the same will make it alien on either or both platforms.

~~~
iLoch
I don't know about that in this case. Take a look at the collapsable menu on
the left for OS X and Windows - one has icons and one doesn't. The icons at
the top are ordered completely differently by the looks of it. That's not a
convention. The real alienation they should worry about is alienating their
own users when they're on different platforms. The program should feel
familiar regardless.

~~~
m_eiman
Agreed, it should feel familiar. But also respect the platform conventions.
Nobody ever said UX was supposed to be easy, did they? :)

------
dantiberian
> With the new versions of SourceTree, you’ll be prompted to review and accept
> Atlassian’s Customer Agreement and Privacy Policy. To ensure that it is
> really you that’s accepting these changes, we’re prompting every user to
> enter their existing Atlassian account credentials or create an Atlassian
> account.

This smells like BS to me. 99% of all installable apps with EULAs including
from big companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe don't require you to login
to accept the EULA.

If you want people to log in, then sell them on the great features they get,
don't lie to them.

~~~
seraphine
You have __always __been forced to register, but previously it was with a 60
day "trial" before it demanded a key and stopped working.

------
bhagyas
The new update requires you to login to an Atlassian account and you will be
locked out from using Sourcetree if you refuse to login.

Avoid if you don't have an Atlassian account, don't want to create one or
don't want to be logged in.

[http://imgur.com/lsI2M9o](http://imgur.com/lsI2M9o)

~~~
taneq
When you first install Sourcetree (and every year thereafter) you have to
register it with an email address. Is this just that or is it different? (ie.
have they started requiring an always-on connection to Atlassian or
something?)

~~~
Kovah
No, you have to register a full Atlassian account with all of your personal
details. A single email address is not enough anymore.

~~~
thatguysteve
You always needed an Atlassian account to retrieve the license but now you can
do that by just logging in to the app instead.

------
niuzeta
I don't mind SourceTree; it's a great tool to visualize git tree that
scratches some itches that _gitk_ doesn't quite. Tree visualization of
multiple branches and seamless integration with github/bitbucket are the
reason I keep it on my Windows machine.

Granted, most of actual git activities are better done via command line,
except for chunk editing.

Just one chagrin I have with sourcetree is the lack of linux integration,
despite obvious demand:
[https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/149631/sourcetree-
fo...](https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/149631/sourcetree-for-linux)

~~~
notnarb
> scratches some itches that gitk doesn't quite. Tree visualization of
> multiple branches...

Just a quick PSA that gitk does support multiple branch tree visualization
when started with the 'all' flag i.e 'gitk --all'.

This roughly mirrors the CLI's 'git log --graph --all'.

(not to say that either of these commands have a better UI/UX than SourceTree)

~~~
niuzeta
wow, TIL. I really needed to know this. thank you.

------
davidjgraph
The recent SourceTree release was dire, aside from the UI changes, it was just
broken in too many places. This happens, but what really got my goat was the
original tweet in this thread,
[https://twitter.com/cody_watkins/status/700023288085372928](https://twitter.com/cody_watkins/status/700023288085372928).

It wasn't a beta version, it was a main release and the quality was too poor
for them to admit it. This is just sleazy PR.

~~~
ptibbetts
The quality was poor even if you could get it to work; signing into Bitbucket
(also by Atlassian) repeatedly crashed the app for me, which wouldn't have
been a problem if it didn't automatically attempt to (and then hang) every
time I opened it.

------
pixard
I've been using SourceTree for years. It was always a little funky in how it
was laid out but I got used to it.

I could have lived with this change if they didn't get rid of freaking COLORS.
Seriously. All the icons look more or less the same now. Have to read to make
sure I'm clicking what I think I'm clicking.

I think I'll look elsewhere finally. I just can't stand another 50 shades of
gray interface.

~~~
timlyo
Gitkraken is looking fairly promising. Although it currently has a font
rendering issue with electron that results in a white screen :/

[http://www.gitkraken.com/](http://www.gitkraken.com/)

------
woodcut
Side topic here: Anyone noticed how bad Git-LFS is?

We've been using it in production for dataset versioning and noticed that it's
not even at a beta stage, perhaps pre-alpha. It gets corrupted by it's own
volition at random, working seamlessly for a day then suddenly 'git clone'
will fail repeatedly, until the repository is rolled back, or it magically
fixes itself.

I don't understand how it got integrated into Github, and now i see sourcetree
and other clients support it. gah.

~~~
Camillo
Git-LFS was developed _by_ Github, presumably so they could expand their
business to manage more types of content.

~~~
woodcut
I mean i understand that, but they didn't seem to do much of an evaluation
before launching.

------
aleem
SourceTree served me well for many years. Switched to GirUp 3 months ago and
haven't looked back since. Highly recommend it. It's fast.

[http://gitup.co/](http://gitup.co/)

~~~
nikolay
You mean, GitUp (not GirUp) and 1.0.3 (not 3)?

~~~
toyg
"Switched to Gitup" \+ "3 months ago"

------
faizmokhtar
I had to revert back to the old version with "ugly" icons as soon as I've got
the new update since the new UI is so terrible and hard to look at. Not to
mention it keeps on crashing.

------
willtim
In my opinion a huge strategic error not to write a cross-platform app. Now
they have two separate code bases (Mac and Windows) and still no Linux support
ever likely. Since I use Linux, like many other developers, this app isn't an
option.

------
nielsencfm123
I don't get why Atlassian have a source tree blog if they're not going to
engage with their users. Last I checked there are 66 horribly critical
comments. And no-one from Atlassian have engaged at all.

------
tempestn
Wow, people generally dislike change, but the level of negativity in the
comments there suggests that these changes really _are_ bad.

~~~
manyxcxi
Yeah, it got bad shockingly fast. Question though: does anyone really use
SourceTree? I've tried using it like 5 different times and it's just so
convoluted. It's very ugly, non-intuitive, and doesn't have a lot of features
that people use with Git.

On Windows I usually grab Tortoise, and on Mac I use Tower. Tower has some
limitations and it gets crashy every now and then, but geez they make using a
UI worth it. I genuinely got as good as I am with Git on the command line
because SourceTree was so effing bad and I didn't have rights to install
something different on a laptop I was using for a week.

~~~
acemarke
I've been using it for the last two years, since our team switched to Git. I
like being able to scroll through the commits list, and the ability to easily
add hunks or even individual lines by clicking is a vast improvement over `git
add -p`. Also Sourcetree has a UI for doing interactive rebasing, which is
GREAT for the same reason.

The biggest downside for me is the inability to easily browse the state of a
repo at a given commit, like I could with TortoiseHG. I keep around
GitExtensions for some of that history browsing. Also, the security software
installed on my work machine insists on inspecting new processes for
validation, which unfortunately doesn't play well with ST spawning multiple
git.exe process trees. Always pegs my CPU and slows things down. Performance
is reasonable on other machines, though.

Overall, I find it a useful and valuable tool. I just wish they'd make real
improvements instead of this "replace a perfectly acceptable UI with a bunch
of unreadable gray lines" nonsense they just pulled. I'm sticking with 1.6.25.

------
mathiasrw
Wow - whats up with forcing people to login - what is the catch? what is the
point?

Feels like when an app wants access to your GPS, contacts and microphone and
you wonder for what reason...

~~~
toyg
Atlassian is currently hellbent on getting all their products "integrated"
from an account perspective -- so they can "provide a better experience",
which likely translates to "will require monthly subscriptions everywhere".

Feel the cloud, baby.

------
juandazapata
Learn how to use the Git command line. You will never regret it. In the past,
I could only use git using Git Tower, but when I was forced to use the command
line, I never went back. The level of granularity is fantastic. Also you won't
look ridiculously incompetent when you're pair programming with a co-worker
and they don't have the SourceTree/Kraken/Tower/etc.

~~~
alimbada
Command line prowess is not the be all and end all of competency. Some people
like to have less of an overhead in brain cycles when doing menial/repetitive
tasks (like dealing with source control) so that they can actually get on with
real work.

Personally, I think git is overcomplicated. Powerful, yes, but still
ridiculously complicated, but that's the price you pay for all that power and
flexibility. If a GUI can make many of the simple tasks easier and quicker
then I'll always opt for that; I'll drop down to the command line when I need
to deal with more complicated scenarios.

------
rajksarkar
We’re planning a new beta release process for our upcoming SourceTree releases
and we’ll share more in a blog post in the coming days. This will allow the
community to engage with the SourceTree team and provide extensive feedback on
future updates. Thanks for all your feedback.

------
mh-
if you want to bypass the forced startup wizard/login crap on OSX:

    
    
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS STWelcomeStageAtlassianAccount -int 0
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS STWelcomeStageCloning -int 0
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS STWelcomeStageLicense -int 0
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS STWelcomeStageRemotes -int 0
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS agreedToEULA2 -int 1
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS AtlassianAccountEmail -string me@my.atlassian.com
      defaults write com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS completedWelcomeWizardVersion -int 3

------
Kovah
I was using the new version for about a week now and besides some bugs I
really don't like the new design. After working with SourceTree for 2 years it
feels like I have to learn a new application. I'm now checking out GitKraken
which looks quite promising after the first hours of working with it.

------
wmt
On Windows version big repositories are now noticeably faster than with the
old version, which makes this feel like an improvement despite its glaring
flaws, like the hassle for the mandatory registration with a bogus mailinator
email-address, or the brand new UI bugs.

------
cmicali
I don't know why they have not pulled the new version yet.. apart from the
login issue that blocked most people from using the app, there are so many
regressions and new bugs it is unusable.

I'm surprised to see such a big misstep from Atlassian.

~~~
rajksarkar
Please try the latest releases published on Mon and let us know what issues
you are running into

~~~
cmicali
Just tried it - few obvious ones on first open:

* Clicking on unstaged/staged files changes the diff view but the highlight on the file works on only half of the files, seems to be random when it works and doesn't work

* Highlight to show which branch is selected is gone (History is selected by default and highlighted, when you click out highlight is gone forever)

* Sometimes diffs are completely blank ([https://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.hipchat.com/29857/194444/fU...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.hipchat.com/29857/194444/fUC6OvlmuZ9F62S/upload.png))

* UI flickers, is about 2x as slow as previous version

Don't mean to pick apart a free product, but this is a tool we have been using
for years and to have a pushed update regress things this much is a surprise.

~~~
rajksarkar
Thanks for the feedback. I have passed it on to engineering.

------
mamcx
I always like sourcetree, mainly because is the best mercurial GUI client I
have used so far, and the ability to do git with the same tool is great.

I use the command-line for basic task, but the GUI is great for visualization
and do stuff like diffs, conflict merge and other things.

However, lately sourcetree crash _every time_ I open it, then re-open and it
work (!). The tool is good enough to accept this so far.

But now I'm worried that this get worse...

~~~
rchhabs
Hey, thanks for reaching out. We're aware of the Hg related crash. A fix
addressing this issue will be out soon!

------
alimbada
I updated to 1.8.* (Windows) last week when the app notified me of the new
version and found it hugely unstable. I've since downgraded back to 1.7.0 and
will be continuing to use that until I have a real need to upgrade.

It's a huge shame that SourceTree isn't open source. I'd love to lend my WPF
expertise to the project; it seems whoever's working on the Windows version is
a bit clueless.

~~~
rajksarkar
Did you try the latest release? Let us know if you see it is still unstable

~~~
alimbada
Just upgraded to 1.8.2.3 - still can't stage multiple files at once like I
used to be able to in 1.7.x; i.e. select multiple files and hit space. Also,
there's no backup context menu option for this?

------
rcarmo
Sad about this - just had two long-time friends complain bitterly about it -
one moved to Github Desktop, the other downgraded. Used to use it myself on
one machine until I started using VS Code (which has a simple and effective
Git workflow).

------
smaili
Still waiting for showing all repositories on the left hand side so I don't
need to iterate through ten different windows whenever I'm looking to commit
something.

Edit: Some commenters mentioned SmartGit and GitKraken. Anyone here actually
use them?

~~~
tychuz
>Edit: Some commenters mentioned SmartGit and GitKraken. Anyone here actually
use them?

GitKraken took like 400+ mB on my Mac. That's quite insane for such a simple
application.

~~~
tehbeard
electron app + whatever junk (tests, docs, examples) module maintainers didn't
hide with an .npmignore.

------
wingerlang
I hope they can add a higher contrast mode. It is quite hard to see some
things.

------
davidspiess
In Windows drag & drop for staging files is gone completely. Happy to see now
my stashed content in the small sidebar after the remotes. Overall the release
isn't that bad in my opinion.

------
alphabetam
I've started using Git Extensions, which works really, really well.

------
cpeterso
The only reason I use SourceTree is for its Mercurial support. It has always
been very slow, but at least it was actively maintained, unlike the other
Mercurial GUI apps I've tested.

------
cryptos
Still no Linux version. I'm disappointed.

------
alexeiz
"Say goodbye to the command line" \- urgh! Should command line users stay away
from this app?

------
buster
Still no decent Linux GUI for Git :(

------
D_Guidi
buggy. Wait for next versions

------
PlzSnow
Why make it require MacOS 10.10?

It's not compatible with OSes over a year old?

This is absurd developer laziness.

