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GitHub Desktop is now available

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Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Which parts do you enjoy the most ?

What I like most about Magit is staging, unstaging, and reverting hunks.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#202
post #130
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a myth that Linux users aren't interested in GUI tools. According to stack overflow statistics, Ubuntu is the most popular Linux based OS amongst developers, which is an OS that is much more GUI based than say Arch linux. According to the same stats, Linux and OS X usage is statistically tied at ~21%. If you take into account the fact that only about 2% of computer users run Linux at all it's pretty clea…

Shameless plug: I recently built a new linux GUI git client. The people who use it really like it. Still working on docs to better explain what makes it different. Like GitHub's client, it's more than just a wrapper around the CLI, but unlike GitHub's client it exposes git's full power (tags, cherry-pick, rebase, etc.) If you'd like to try a new linux gui client, give it a spin! Video in action: https://www.youtube.c…

Your diffing doesn't suck! That alone is really valuable. What really sucks on Windows is merging: there are very few products that deal with merging at a basic competency level (the git merge markers usually wreak havoc).

One criticism: that jgit tab needs a serious UX pass. It's extremely scary looking to someone who has never used it (me).

That being said, I'll be keeping a very close eye on your kickstarter. Very close.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#203
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shameless plug: I recently built a new linux GUI git client. The people who use it really like it. Still working on docs to better explain what makes it different. Like GitHub's client, it's more than just a wrapper around the CLI, but unlike GitHub's client it exposes git's full power (tags, cherry-pick, rebase, etc.) If you'd like to try a new linux gui client, give it a spin! Video in action: https://www.youtube.c…

Your diffing doesn't suck! That alone is really valuable. What really sucks on Windows is merging: there are very few products that deal with merging at a basic competency level (the git merge markers usually wreak havoc). One criticism: that jgit tab needs a serious UX pass. It's extremely scary looking to someone who has never used it (me). That being said, I'll be keeping a very close eye on your kickstarter. Very…

Thanks for the feedback! On the spectrum from "iOS" to "airplane cockpit", I think GitHub is trying to be iPhone, but I think git has enough inherent power (like an aircraft) that you leave a lot of functionality on the table if you constrain yourself to a "no training required" interface. It's certainly something to aspire to, though! If there's anyone out there who thinks they can clean this up, I'm always looking for partners :) Based in SF, open to remote collaboration, contact info in my profile.

The differ / merge resolution story is gonna get a whole lot better real soon.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#204
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.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#205
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely they felt it's not worth the time since most Linux users are using the CLI for everything else, and likely wouldn't be interested in a GUI. Personally I've never used the Github GUI and have no plans to, running the commands is fast and easy.

I think it's a myth that Linux users aren't interested in GUI tools. According to stack overflow statistics, Ubuntu is the most popular Linux based OS amongst developers, which is an OS that is much more GUI based than say Arch linux. According to the same stats, Linux and OS X usage is statistically tied at ~21%. If you take into account the fact that only about 2% of computer users run Linux at all it's pretty clea…

Let me preface this by saying that I am a full-time Linux user and have been for several years. I run Debian on my laptop and Arch Linux on my home machine. Both use i3 (no DE), and I do all my work at the command line or in applications that I launch from the command line[0]. I love the Linux terminal. I don't even own a non-Linux machine, not counting the various OS X devices I've used at work when one is required.

> I think it's a myth that Linux users aren't interested in GUI tools.

It's definitely a myth, and a very dangerous and self-fulfilling one. I would strongly appreciate a GUI option for many common command-line tools. I like the command-line, and do most of my work there. But sometimes GUI tools are nice to have. The problem is that most GUI tools on Linux really suck, and most Linux tools don't even have a GUI at all[1]. Contrary to popular belief, it's not due to the inadequacy of GUI toolkits on Linux, but simply due to a lack of time actually spent developing these tools.

This ends up being self-fulfilling, because it raises the barrier to getting started on Linux, which keeps out people who would be otherwise very comfortable on Linux as an OS, but simply dislike being forced to use the command-line exclusively.

[0] Never bothered with dmenu, never really felt the need to set it up.

[1] I'm not counting ncurses-based interfaces as GUIs for these purposes.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#206
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.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#207
post #90
post #50

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?

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

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

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have they contributed to git? The other projects are irrelevant, I'm talking about contributing to the core product they are vampiring off of.

At least the #2 and #7 (by number of commits) committers to Git are employed by GitHub. They're both very consistent contributors and have been for a very long time. You specifically said that GitHub does not participate in the open source community and I think I've amply demonstrated that you're incorrect. If you'd like to continue to argue the point, I'd appreciate some facts.

You're right, they hired people that were already participating in the git community to continue to participate in the community. This is better than nothing because it ensures that they are employed, but it's a net zero effect for the git community and isn't what I would call participating because they aren't bringing anything new to the table.

It's similar to Microsoft hiring a bunch of Linux developers to continue developing. Yeah, this is good for marketing checkboxes of 'supporting the open source community', but from the perspective of a developer in that community, it's worthless.

What would be nice is if they hired new developers to work on git so the community actually grows and gets something.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#209
post #48
post #18

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

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…

> 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..."

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#210
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's likely they felt it's not worth the time since most Linux users are using the CLI for everything else, and likely wouldn't be interested in a GUI. Personally I've never used the Github GUI and have no plans to, running the commands is fast and easy.

I use the CLI. Still, that's not the point. Mac users use the CLI too. Some Windows users as well I'm sure. We now live in a Triple-Platform world. Linux is not a sideline project. Its a major Operating System. If OSX gets it (BSD), surely it can be compiled to Linux. Its multi platform anyway so why not go the full distance?!

I believe they're using native libraries on each platform though - the OSX app is using Cocoa, and the Windows app is using WPF.
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