GitHub Desktop was released late last week.
Wait, doesn’t GitHub already have two desktop apps? If the same question crossed your mind when you first read that, then you are not alone. Yes, GitHub did have two desktop apps—one for Mac OS and one for Windows—but decided to unify them into a single app. Instead of GitHub for Mac and GitHub for Windows, we are now left with just GitHub Desktop.
I was planning to write up a full review of the app but decided that forming an opinion on it after only a few days of use (and not even on a real project) would be unfair. Instead, I decided that we could unbox it together and see what it’s all about. This is a video of my first experience with GitHub Desktop from download to first commit. I wasn’t sure what to expect and now you can watch me fumble around with it for the first time.
The whole “desktop” thing is really just mincing words. It’s the same application with Mac and Windows versions. In fact, if you had GitHub for Windows installed, it automatically updated to this latest version a couple days ago. Other than the whole timeline thing at the top, it’s the same as it ever was.
Ok, now all makes sense to me now.
I had GitHub for Windows and I remember I literally searched for those terms to download it. Then I read about GitHub for Desktop and I thought it was a different application. Actually I thought GitHub for Windows was a Microsoft thing. But it wasn’t.
I also see now that in the Settings it says “GitHub Desktop”.
So there you go.
It is certainly a lot faster than that last update they made for Github Windows. Also a nice (however useless) little visual timeline of commits and maybe i am being dumb, but the ability to delete local branches is gone. Before it was under “manage branches” (also gone). Any idea?
been using it daily since it came out last week. the project im working on is in Visual Studio blend 2015, which integrates speciously well.
I never liked GitHub’s desktop app (GitHub for Windows, GitHub Desktop, all the same). The
Sync
button was not only confusing for me, but very glitchy. I moved to SourceTree and never looked back.I moved to the terminal and never looked back.
I’d try Atom with git-plus. That’s everything from one editor
Or Brackets with brackets-git, which gives you a pretty nice GUI for working with git as well.
True, but if you use more than one editor (e.g. Sublime & Visual Studio), it makes more sense to have a central Git client than a client for each editor.
(And regarding the terminal, sure, that works great too. I just prefer a more visual approach, especially when it comes to visualizing branch timelines, comparing files, and so on.)
No visual diff/merge tooling. Unfortunate.
I do like the feature branch view and then straight to PR. Although never understood their terminology for sync and publish.. Does sync pull with rebase or just pull on top of your work and then push? And oops now I have a conflict.. back to the cli. Found sourceTree a bit much too. Currently trialling gitup.co. Hard not to use the ol’ git gui and gitk sometimes. I guess its just about what you know.
I only use the GUI to get a visual snapshot of commit history, and to view file changes.
For all my Git commands I use the posh-git shell because I’ve never trusted the “sync” button. :)
Tried to upgrade it on my home machine. It loaded with existing project and… there is no way to make just simple
git pull
.Ugh. Tower is a far better GUI git client (Mac only).
The GitHub desktop app is utter crap compared to it’s competitors, just take a look at source tree for example.