10 ms·

GitHub for Mac

680 points by kneath 15y ago

barredo 15y ago
This is a huge deal. The app looks amazing. I used Tower for a bit but didn't cut it for me. I was planning to ditch Github for Codebase tonight but I'll reconsider after this
- rcfox 15y ago
  Why is it a huge deal? It's just a desktop version of their web app. Or am I missing something?
  - jwr 15y ago
    That's kind of like saying that a BMW M5 is just a version of a Ford Fiesta. Both will get you there, but the comfort and enjoyment will be somewhat different.
    - invisiblefunnel 15y ago
      Ford Fiesta? That might be selling the web app a bit short.
      - jwr 15y ago
        You're right. I'm not that good at metaphors and that one doesn't do the web app justice. My point was that while the two solutions are more or less functionally equivalent, they do differ significantly in ease-of-use and overall comfort. I'm very, very happy that GitHub is doing this — but I also have high expectations and I do expect the app to improve significantly.
    - jarek 15y ago
      That doesn't mean the M5 is a huge deal. It's a nice, enjoyable ride, but it's not a huge deal.
    - StrawberryFrog 15y ago
      I don't buy that. If thier web app is rubbish, surely the time would be better spent on making thier web app great. But thier web app is great. What's the big deal about a desktop client that wraps a great website?
  - abahgat 15y ago
    Well, their web app tracks the history and changes of your repo hosted there. It means you see them only after you perform a push. On the announcement they say: > But those things are only great after you've pushed your code to GitHub. With the desktop app you can manage your local repository before pushing changes to github
    - walkon 15y ago
      Git is tracking the changes and history, not GitHub.
      - rcfox 15y ago
        Ah, that's what I missed. So it's technically possible to have all of the niceties of GitHub without having to use GitHub?
      - abahgat 15y ago
        Absolutely correct: GitHub just put a GUI on top on that, although it is a very neat one.
  - streeter 15y ago
    This is huge, because for many people, the current interface to git is the command line, which is too much for people who want GUIs. Yes, there are other GUIs out there, but those are not controlled by GitHub. In this case, they did something very similar to what Google did with Chrome; they wanted to provide a consistent and predictable end-to-end solution for users so they built their own desktop app. It also does not hurt that the app defaults to use GitHub, though it does seem like you can use remotes that are not GitHub (see repository -> Settings).
  - brown9-2 15y ago
    The free GUI app might be a good competitor to the not-free OS X clients already out there, and also help rope people into hosting on Github.
glhaynes 15y ago
Looks nice. For someone who has some decent familiarity with version control but none with git specifically: does anybody have any opinion on whether this would be a good way to pick up git for use with Xcode? Version control has always struck me as lending itself well to visual tools so I'm always kind of surprised how poor they usually tend to be.
- farnsworth 15y ago
  I believe XCode has git support built in. You don't have to use it, though.
- jbrennan 15y ago
  Though Xcode 4 does support git, I've stuck with using git from the command line mostly, as I'd had some issues with it in Xcode 4 (betas, mind you). My guess is it's a lot more stable now. Having said that, I still use it from the command line just fine. And you're right, it's often the case where a version control tool like git requires something more visual (especially when dealing with out-of-sync branch merging). For that I've typically used GitX, but GitHub for Mac so far looks like a really nice alternative.
tptacek 15y ago
Does this work on Github:FI? (Related question: does the API work on Github:FI? It doesn't seem to, but I may be dumb.)
- holman 15y ago
  We're prepping for a major FI release- expect full GitHub for Mac support at that time. (And yes, FI ships with the full API as well.)
  - tptacek 15y ago
    Firing off support request. Looking forward to new FI. FI has been f'ing great for us.
  - foobarbazetc 15y ago
    That's the most exciting thing anyone has ever said, ever. FI needs love. :(
tednaleid 15y ago
How does this compare to Tower? It's not obvious from the website, but I'm guessing is less fully featured. Anyone with experience with both who can comment?
- abahgat 15y ago
  I used Tower for a while, and I didn't have the chance to test Git for Mac yet (will do later today when I'll be using my Mac). One thing that Tower can do quite well is dealing with multiple remote repositories (e.g. github + heroku). If GitHub for Mac does that as well, I believe I'm going to switch to that.
  - hamedh 15y ago
    it only works on github
    - technoweenie 15y ago
      Correction: It only works with a single 'origin' remote. It should work fine with any smart http git host. Someone in this thread mentioned it working just fine with Assembla.
      - mattyb 15y ago
        And here are the docs for Git hosts who haven't yet implemented smart http: http://progit.org/2010/03/04/smart-http.html http://progit.org/2010/03/04/smart-http.html
- chrisrogers 15y ago
  I have been using Tower almost daily since it was released in beta some months ago. The feature set it comparable, with the biggest missing feature being individual file rollback. Tags and stashes, as well, do not seem to be supported in github for mac. Perhaps I have simply not found them in the interface yet. In terms of workflow, performing tasks in github for mac is more cumbersome. The gui, while nice, does not fit all that well to a fast git workflow. You must wait for panes to load separately from one another, so one code review and commit may involve loading several panes. This is much different from Tower, which tends to keep most tasks present in the main window. In a dual-monitor setup, Tower works well when occupying a screen, while github for mac would be wasting space if used in that format. The history browser, too, is quite simplistic. Tower can render commit history in the way that github for mac has chosen to do it, but I prefer the way that gity and others have allowed a history list and commit tree. One thing I like about Tower is the ability to scroll down a commit history and instantly see the diffs of that commit. With github for mac, you must click on a commit and bring up the diff in the whole window -- which seems a symptom of its non-multitasking workflow. At this point, I could not see myself using this over Tower in any project scope, though this is of course tinged by my experience with working with Tower. It is very nice that github for mac is free, and having more offerings in the space is going to be great for innovation, but I do wish they had taken a different approach with their interface. Perhaps more to like will come of further use.
macrael 15y ago
It seems clear that GitHub's goal is to make git useable. I'm super excited about everything they can do in that direction. Git's underlying model is fantastic, but it's UI is lacking. Bravo GitHub.
- deleted 15y ago
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  - jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
    The command line is actually a kind of user interface.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - xiaoma 15y ago
    I would say that the command line is an eminent non-graphical variant of a GUI, thus a canonical UI. GUI = graphical user interface GUI - graphical = UI
    - thepumpkin1979 15y ago
      +1 CLI = command-line interface
      - mkramlich 15y ago
        and the beauty of CLI is that, unlike with a GUI, a CLI can serve as both a human UI, and a machine UI or API. and it does the latter for free. give me a binary-only program with a CLI interface and I can build other things on top of it, put it into a pipeline, turn it into a cronjob, etc. give me a binary-only GUI? often nothing you can build on it
        deno 15y ago
dabeeeenster 15y ago
It works with central repos other than github too - it picked up assembla repos I had and pushes to them no problem. Great stuff.
gmac 15y ago
This looks awesome, but is it too soon for a feature request? I'd love a side-by-side diff view, FileMerge style.
- glenngillen 15y ago
  while we're at the feature requests, multiple accounts? I've got a "business-y" type one and a personal one
  - philfreo 15y ago
    Why have multiple accounts? The idea is that you have Organizations for business stuff, and you just switch "contexts" between personal and organizations.
kmfrk 15y ago
Free, too. GitHub don't mess around. Any plans for putting it in the Mac App Store?
- abahgat 15y ago
  Keeping it free would perfectly make sense on the long run too, IMHO. It could attract a lot more users to githubcom and FI.
- joshaber 15y ago
  Yes. But the update experience for Mac App Store apps is so bad right now that it's a bit discouraging.
  - gt384u 15y ago
    What about the update experience do you find so bad/discouraging?
    - joshaber 15y ago
      It takes days/weeks for Apple to approve updates and then users have to consciously open the Mac App Store app and download them.
joshuacc 15y ago
This looks awesome. I really hope that their next move is to create a Windows version, as I haven't yet found a Windows Git GUI that I like.
- SkyMarshal 15y ago
  They'd have to create a Windows version of Git first, wouldn't they? Then the GUI.
  - joshuacc 15y ago
    I've been running Git on Windows for several months. I don't see any reason why they can't take advantage of the existing work in that area. http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3 http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3
    - seabee 15y ago
      It's been usable for over a year, even. Grandparent's comment is really dated. I mean, it's not as if GitHub don't have Windows instructions... http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git/ http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git/
- iaskwhy 15y ago
  Two days ago I gave SmartGit a try and don't really see a reason to look back: http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/ http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/
  - joshuacc 15y ago
    Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.
    - smhinsey 15y ago
      Git Extensions is not bad either, although I'm not using the VS addins. The GUI is nice for visualizing histories and things like that.
sant0sk1 15y ago
Awesome! Gorgeous! Thanks! Now, when will we be able to stage parts of files like we can with GitX? ;)
jonursenbach 15y ago
Will be interesting to see if they integrate issues and wiki into this. For a first release though, I'm impressed. Edit: Also would love to see this integrated with notifications so I can get Growl popups.
- davepeck 15y ago
  Not that this contributes much to the conversation but: YES on both counts. I use GitHub's issue tracker in volume both for some fairly large projects (getcloak.com, walkscore.com, and wherebe.us) I've found that the Issues web interface leaves a lot to be desired. It's a fine v1 [v2 technically], but somewhat painful in practice once you have more than a handful of issues. The 280 North issues app was interesting but hasn't kept up with the latest GitHub features. As for Growl: it would be great to have it built in. In the interim, there's this: https://github.com/miyagawa/github-growler/downloads https://github.com/miyagawa/github-growler/downloads
- thilo 15y ago
  Yes, that would be great. There are already plenty of okay Git GUI clients out there to manage your repository locally, but what I miss is the ability to edit (and preview!) the wiki locally. You can sync the contents via git, but then you are left with editing the raw source files directly.
dchest 15y ago
I hate all the visual clutter and unjustified complexity the new stylish iOS-like interfaces bring. Those interfaces are only good for Twitter and friends (and for screenshots). Some feedback: * Get rid of huge spacing everywhere (for example here: http://github-images.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2011/mac-screenshots/changes-full.png http://github-images.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2011/mac-screensh...) * Make animations go faster. * History should have preview pane with diffs (see Mail) instead of making me click on commits. * There are windows on Macs. You can use them instead of [edit: or in addition to] making me navigate inside a single window. * Loading indicators are annoying. Move them to bottom (there it won't distract me, but I'll know that it's still loading). Oh, and congrats on release.
- kenneth_reitz 15y ago
  I love this app so much. However, +10 for "Make animations go faster".
- codyrobbins 15y ago
  Agreed—the concept of porting UIKit to OS X is insane to me. The Mac desktop is not an iPhone! I don’t want to interact with a desktop app as if I were on a phone—especially not an app that I’m ostensibly supposed to use for development. That said, creating a desktop interface for GitHub is a brilliant move. Bravo!
- KingOfB 15y ago
  There are windows on macs, but it appears Macs are going away from them with the full screen apps. Look at all of Apple's apps - they're all going single window. Document based apps can still have multiple windows, but everything is self contained.
  - dchest 15y ago
    I don't see what's changed in 10.7 regarding windows. Can you point the app that had multiple windows, but moved to something else? But you're right that you can avoid using multiple windows in the app if it's good for usability. My point is that currently it's not possible to have two repositories opened simultaneously; especially since on OS X it's difficult to open two instances of the same application. (As an example, in Mail you have previews in a single window, but you can also double-click the message to open it in a separate window).
deleted 15y ago
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beaumartinez 15y ago
I wonder why they've released a client for OS X and not another OS―if anything, Windows is pretty lacking in git love. Whose is its target audience and the desired function? New users, to reel them in with a shiny UI? Or established users who don't use it much, to make the experience simpler? (And if it's established users who use it much―isn't the command-line faster for them?) If they want more users to use GitHub, surely a GitHub for Windows makes more sense (unless this is an employee's side-project gone primetime).
- canistr 15y ago
  I agree. My command-line experience is faster and keeps my work flow the same whether I'm developing on OS X or Linux. The added GUI would serve to slow me down but if I really wanted to see changes visually, I could just go to github.com and do everything I need there since I know where everything is.
- sunchild 15y ago
  Perhaps because it's easier to develop something like this for OS X?
  - sunchild 15y ago
    Apparently not! http://warpspire.com/posts/designing-github-mac/ http://warpspire.com/posts/designing-github-mac/
- calloc 15y ago
  Honestly I think it is the first platform because many of the github developers are Mac users.
- kneath 15y ago
  Because we all use OS X. Build what you use first, expand from there.
jamiequint 15y ago
Still extremely buggy, I was only able to load one of my repos, others failed with error messages like this: http://bit.ly/iJzNmp http://bit.ly/iJzNmp and even the successful ones came up with errors after loading.
- brown9-2 15y ago
  There is really no need to use a URL shortener when posting links here. The HN software will abbreviate the link text on it's own if it is too long. It's a little annoying to have to guess where a link is going to forward to.
  - jamiequint 15y ago
    GrabBox automatically shortens my screenshot links. Click if you dare. IMHO they should have used bitly pro and their own shortener for marketing the thing.
LoonyPandora 15y ago
It's a good first attempt, but it's not quite there yet and won't replace gitbox in my workflow. The big problem is that it will only work with the origin remote [1]. This means no pulling in upstream changes, then pushing it to your fork - doing this on multiple branches with the command line is a pain, and something a GUI would be great for. The interface feels a little half baked too, e.g why the multiple overlapping sidebars - one blue, one black, why not just merge them? [1]http://mac.github.com/help http://mac.github.com/help
clutchski 15y ago
It's interesting to see such a killer web company start investing in native apps.
- puredemo 15y ago
  Shows a lot of versatility. I'm impressed.
csmajorfive 15y ago
This app is great. I've been waiting for something like this. I hope they iterate on the staging/commit UI because, as is, I'm still going to use GitX to preview and selectively stage things. Some suggestions: * Get rid of expand/collapse and checkmark pattern. Let me see two lists of files -- changed and staged. If I click on one, show the changes. * Staging by chunk & line. * Squashing with the previous commit.
- sjs 15y ago
  And if staging by line never failed that would be stellar ;)
bluehex 15y ago
Downloaded and played with the App a bit. While it's beautiful and a great first version, I don't think it really provides anything that GitX doesn't already do better. I can see how this tool might be valuable for someone who's intimidated by git, because it's hiding a lot of what's going on. But in it's current state I wouldn't use this for more than training wheels. If / when they add pull request support and other Github specific features I might come around.
hamedh 15y ago
looks great, would be awesome to have keyboard shortcuts to go back/forward
pnathan 15y ago
Oh, hey! This is awesome! I am going to investigate this for my GitHub project.
newman314 15y ago
How does this compare with Git Tower?
- veidr 15y ago
  Well, for one thing, they both have very pretty UIs that are severely dysfunctional in exactly the same way: you can only have one window open at a time, which means you can't use the app to look at two repos at the same time. For seriously using git for development, I find that pretty nuts. Every time I want to browse a different repository, I have to destroy all the work I did opening the window for the current repo and drilling down through the UI to get to the part I am interested in? Seems crazy. I think more apps would do well to learn from the windowing strategy of Mail.app on Mac. It too has a monolithic main window where everything happens--but Cmd-Opt-N creates a "New Viewer Window". Another complete window with all the power of the first. Search for foo in window 1, read mail list bar in window 2. This sort of arrangement would make Github for Mac (and Tower) worth looking at. As it is, if I have to throw away several seconds of work every single time I open another repo, those seconds are going to add up -- and annoy me -- very quickly. (By the way, just to check, I tried out making a few copies of the app and opening multiple repos that way. Just like Tower, the app started to puke modal error dialogs and show blank windows, so that doesn't work.)
frr149 15y ago
Great news, except… it's "for Mac", not for iOS, folks. There's plenty of space on my MBP 17'' screen, so don't treat it as if it was an iPhone.
DrCatbox 15y ago
Is there something like this for GNU/Linux ?
ya3r 15y ago
Guys, I must get a mac!
- ghotli 15y ago
  Since you're new here I'll just give you an FYI. This kind of comment is going to get you downvotes because it doesn't add anything tangible to the discussion. We value a really high signal to noise ratio.
  - ya3r 15y ago
    Noted. Thanks
rjh29 15y ago
I'm sorry, but in the world of awesomely-licensed Qt and other cross-platform toolkits, why would you go out of your way to build a native app on Mac libraries and only release it for a single platform? I can understand that OS X probably has the biggest share of GitHub visitors, but git is fully open source, GitHub seem to very much like open source, and in the spirit of that I'd expect a native app that works on as many platforms as possible.
- eddieplan9 15y ago
  a native app that works on as many platforms as possible The definition of native app has changed. It's no longer a synonym for compiled binary; or using native widget. It is not as simple as coding your UI in a cross-platform toolkit. In these days, a native app means something that feels like the built-in apps: it's beyond skinning and appearance and is more about how the app as a whole interacts with the user to get the job done. As the platforms diverge, it's now really hard - if not impossible - to make a cross-platform native app. Among Performance, Cost, Time, Scope, you can only pick three. GitHub sacrifices the scope.
  - rmc 15y ago
    The narrowing is almost due to web apps being much more full featured. Web apps are the cross platform write once applications we were promised.
- pornel 15y ago
  I haven't seen Qt application on OS X that has look'n'feel of first-class native application. Qt apps are in uncanny valley on OS X. Apparently, GitHub chose to do best they can for one platform instead of something that is merely good enough on few platforms.
- catch23 15y ago
  Reminds me of when Intuit was building out Quicken -- most of their versions were built using cross platform tools, but inside the code it became a big mess and most recently they decided to scrap the whole thing and re-write the mac client in native objective-c instead of c++ Sure you can build cross-platform stuff using Java or QT, but has anyone actually liked the stuff that came out from that?
eli 15y ago
That's cool and all, but a Windows client would make a lot more business sense. There are already a couple of nice git clients for Mac. There aren't for Windows. And I assume github is targeting SMB with its paid offerings. Unless you're a design shop or a hip startup, odds are you're not running OS X. Based on my unscientific data, most companies have the devs working on Windows (or occasionally Linux).
- getsat 15y ago
  A Windows client doesn't make sense when most (all?) Github employees are on Macs. Mac is higher priority than Windows.
  - jbellis 15y ago
    I get that dogfooding is important, but github employees aren't the target market.
    - catch23 15y ago
      Github employees are the target market, they use Git don't they? What use is developing a windows app that none of the developers will use initially?
      - eli 15y ago
        Selling software where the target market is exactly the same as the people writing it seems like it's the exception not the rule. I assume most OpenTable devs do not own a restaurant.
        catch23 15y ago
        sounds like a strawman argument to me...
  - eli 15y ago
    Sure, but my point is that most of Github's potential customers are not on Macs.
jarin 15y ago
It looks really nice, but I don't see myself switching from command-line Git (except for maybe when viewing logs and/or diffs). This will definitely be awesome for working with designers though.
antihero 15y ago
Do they have a linux client?
tobylane 15y ago
If you're interested, here are the decent (looking, not used) alternatives - Brother's Gitx fork http://brotherbard.com/blog/2010/03/experimental-gitx-fork/ http://brotherbard.com/blog/2010/03/experimental-gitx-fork/ Gitbox http://gitboxapp.com/ http://gitboxapp.com/ and Gitx http://gitx.frim.nl/ http://gitx.frim.nl/
watty 15y ago
Mac: Tower, GitX, GitBox, GitHub, Sprout, Gitti, SourceTree ... Windows: TortoiseGit?
- scrrr 15y ago
  and there's always git gui
- uses 15y ago
  Git Extensions is pretty nice for Windows. http://code.google.com/p/gitextensions/ http://code.google.com/p/gitextensions/
  - danssig 15y ago
    "nice" is going to far but it's completely workable. Better to use that than SVN in any case.
theycallmemorty 15y ago
Am I justified in being disappointed this doesn't support OS X 10.4 (Tiger)?
- dolinsky 15y ago
  I think you mean "Is it reasonable to be disappointed this doesn't support 10.4", in which case no, I don't think it's reasonable. 10.4 stopped being updated in Nov '07.
peterbraden 15y ago
It seems there's no way to log out. This is a fairly major omission.
- spicyj 15y ago
  Simply delete your username/email and password from the app preferences window.
  - peterbraden 15y ago
    that doesn't log you out - all the data is still visible in the app.
js4all 15y ago
What a great "out of the box" experience. Unpacked it, entered my github login data and synced my repos. No hassling with ssh keys, no setup, no other questions asked. This is great for beginners and pros. Thanks.
speg 15y ago
Hot damn! This is a sweet app. I've been trying to get into github but I do not like the command line. This is a sweet app and should get many n00bs like me into github.
kevinherron 15y ago
What ever happened to the Kickstarter project to create a native GitHub app? Is this it? Is this something else? Is that project now doomed? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sferik/hubcap-a-github-client-for-mac-os-x http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sferik/hubcap-a-github-c...
- martey 15y ago
  sferik, the developer of that project, has talked a bit about his thoughts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83585135836016640 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83585135836016640 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83588359066353664 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83588359066353664 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83600376061894656 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83600376061894656 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83616031309967360 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83616031309967360
- jonursenbach 15y ago
  Mused on Twitter earlier about this but got shot down by @kneath. Thought it was interesting that Hubcap was in the first screenshot on the blog post and @kneath himself was a backer of the project, meaning that he's had an inside look into the development of Hubcap while they've been creating Github for Mac. Conspiracy theory I know, but I thought it was interesting at least.
ashleyw 15y ago
First time an application has been unsupported on my Core Duo (32bit) Macbook Pro. Is there a reason for it, does the application really require a 64bit OS, or did the GitHub guys just forget about us early Intel Mac owners?
- michaelschade 15y ago
  Wondering the same thing, disappointed to see that I can't try it out :( I know that Lion will be dropping support for us 32-bit Mac users, but it still sucks to see apps jumping on that bandwagon so quickly.
- joshaber 15y ago
  It was intentional. There are differences between the 32- and 64-bit ABIs that make life easier for us to go 64-bit only.
  - ashleyw 15y ago
    Fair enough, I'd probably do the same if I wasn't a CoreDuo owner myself, especially since Lion's dropping support too.
jessep 15y ago
It stalled after I entered my credentials. It's just been sitting there for 10 minutes.
- asifjamil 15y ago
  not sure if its related, but i keep getting an authentication error; can't seem to figure out what's going on http://cl.ly/7roP http://cl.ly/7roP
leon_ 15y ago
Hmm, tried it out. Going "back" to plain old cli git. I got so used to the command line that I'm faster with it.
neovive 15y ago
Looks great! One more reason for developers to move over to Git and a great way to get more people on GitHub. On another note, I wonder if this is another example of how native applications are gaining momentum on the desktop as a carry-over from the mobile apps industry. Perhaps, more companies will begin asking the question "if native apps beat web apps on mobile devices, why not on the desktop as well?"
senko 15y ago
How much of the client is GitHub specific, and how much is plain 'ol Git? Does it make sense to use it w/o using GitHub? Couldn't find that info in either the announcement post, GitHub for Mac page, or the 118 comments so far here, and don't own a Mac so can't try it for myself (still would like to know whether to recommend to other people or not, though).
- nolanw 15y ago
  You can certainly use the client for plain ol' Git. The GitHub-specific stuff is a "Push to GitHub" button on repositories that aren't already on GitHub, and a list of your GitHub repositories. It's more than useful without ever using GitHub the web service/site.
sunchild 15y ago
I've been using this app for a few hours now, and I have no idea how people can complain about it. It's freakin' amazing! I love it. Thank you!
sebkomianos 15y ago
I haven't used GitHub extensively but from what I was understanding the whole control via terminal was a quite educational thing on its own. I am planning to start using it though so I wanted to ask, should I stick to the terminal or am I making a big deal out of nothing?
trangatrang 15y ago
This is not going to save anyone any time over the cli, only make it easier for people who are scared of it. When I'm writing, I hate going to the mouse when I don't have to. Give me a GUI where I can still use my keyboard and I'd pay a hundred bux for that shit.
chrismealy 15y ago
If you click "published" on your branch it will delete it! Watch out!
- spicycode 15y ago
  Just click it again and it will re-publish it.
  - chrismealy 15y ago
    Not when you don't have the branch checked out.
skant 15y ago
My Organization Repos don't show up.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
kbd 15y ago
Given that github is written in Ruby, I wonder if they evaluated MacRuby before writing their Mac client.
tjogin 15y ago
The Github guys just never cease to impress me. They've made development so much more enjoyable. And at any given time, you can expect them to not only do the right thing, but to do better than that. Like, releasing a great Git app for free, hoping to get more people to use Git, and thereby Github, and thereby becoming paying customers. A perfectly reasonable plan, but most companies don't have that foresight and patience. My hat is off to you, you rock.
stephen_g 15y ago
Looks pretty good. Why doesn't it respect .gitignore files though? I opened a C++ project and it wanted to commit about thirty object files, and things like that...
tzury 15y ago
Have you noticed this comment? https://github.com/blog/878-announcing-github-for-mac#comment-12541 https://github.com/blog/878-announcing-github-for-mac#commen... josscrowcroft commented about 16 hours ago Holy crap! Cool! All that time i spent learning Git from the command-line, WASTED. There is no doubt, a new generation of Hacker is emerging, where yourself the command-line-fu is a waste of time.
- gizzlon 15y ago
  It's not the command line that makes git daunting, it's everything you have to know about git to use it effectively. I don't believe a GUI can remove that without making git lot less powerful.
- bradendouglass 15y ago
  The CLI_FU's are just becoming more and more useful (and paid more). GIT is just becoming more and more useful for everyone from writers to designers. Those groups of people usually run with their tails between their legs away from the command line.
arturadib 15y ago
It's crashing quite a bit with me - all I do is to fire it up via /usr/local/bin/github while inside a repo. It displays the changes, but more often than not it crashes...
StrawberryFrog 15y ago
I don't get it. If I made a windows desktop client for a popular website, would anyone at all even care? Github (the website ) is great, it works well. The thinking that a website is a poor substitute for a native app is increasingly outdated. Github is an example of this, it does a lot on the web. What extra does this app bring to the table? What does it make possible or easier that I can't do on the website or in TortoiseGit?
- bradhe 15y ago
  >Github is an example of this, it does a lot on the web. I agree, and not really enough actually -- they seriously need to work on their UX and it's disappointing that this is the direction they're going.
- fanf2 15y ago
  It's an offline GUI for local git repositories.
  - StrawberryFrog 15y ago
    So, just like Tortoisegit? I'm still not getting the Unique Selling Point. Or is this just a case of the intersection of Github fanboys and Mac fanboys? Once both of those factors are removed, I'm not seeing the magic.
john8954 15y ago
its good to read this ...

680 points by kneath 15y ago

This is a huge deal. The app looks amazing. I used Tower for a bit but didn't cut it for me. I was planning to ditch Github for Codebase tonight but I'll reconsider after this

rcfox 15y ago
Why is it a huge deal? It's just a desktop version of their web app. Or am I missing something?
- jwr 15y ago
  That's kind of like saying that a BMW M5 is just a version of a Ford Fiesta. Both will get you there, but the comfort and enjoyment will be somewhat different.
  - invisiblefunnel 15y ago
    Ford Fiesta? That might be selling the web app a bit short.
    - jwr 15y ago
      You're right. I'm not that good at metaphors and that one doesn't do the web app justice. My point was that while the two solutions are more or less functionally equivalent, they do differ significantly in ease-of-use and overall comfort. I'm very, very happy that GitHub is doing this — but I also have high expectations and I do expect the app to improve significantly.
  - jarek 15y ago
    That doesn't mean the M5 is a huge deal. It's a nice, enjoyable ride, but it's not a huge deal.
  - StrawberryFrog 15y ago
    I don't buy that. If thier web app is rubbish, surely the time would be better spent on making thier web app great. But thier web app is great. What's the big deal about a desktop client that wraps a great website?
- abahgat 15y ago
  Well, their web app tracks the history and changes of your repo hosted there. It means you see them only after you perform a push. On the announcement they say: > But those things are only great after you've pushed your code to GitHub. With the desktop app you can manage your local repository before pushing changes to github
  - walkon 15y ago
    Git is tracking the changes and history, not GitHub.
    - rcfox 15y ago
      Ah, that's what I missed. So it's technically possible to have all of the niceties of GitHub without having to use GitHub?
    - abahgat 15y ago
      Absolutely correct: GitHub just put a GUI on top on that, although it is a very neat one.
- streeter 15y ago
  This is huge, because for many people, the current interface to git is the command line, which is too much for people who want GUIs. Yes, there are other GUIs out there, but those are not controlled by GitHub. In this case, they did something very similar to what Google did with Chrome; they wanted to provide a consistent and predictable end-to-end solution for users so they built their own desktop app. It also does not hurt that the app defaults to use GitHub, though it does seem like you can use remotes that are not GitHub (see repository -> Settings).
- brown9-2 15y ago
  The free GUI app might be a good competitor to the not-free OS X clients already out there, and also help rope people into hosting on Github.

glhaynes 15y ago

Looks nice. For someone who has some decent familiarity with version control but none with git specifically: does anybody have any opinion on whether this would be a good way to pick up git for use with Xcode? Version control has always struck me as lending itself well to visual tools so I'm always kind of surprised how poor they usually tend to be.

farnsworth 15y ago
I believe XCode has git support built in. You don't have to use it, though.
jbrennan 15y ago
Though Xcode 4 does support git, I've stuck with using git from the command line mostly, as I'd had some issues with it in Xcode 4 (betas, mind you). My guess is it's a lot more stable now. Having said that, I still use it from the command line just fine. And you're right, it's often the case where a version control tool like git requires something more visual (especially when dealing with out-of-sync branch merging). For that I've typically used GitX, but GitHub for Mac so far looks like a really nice alternative.

tptacek 15y ago

Does this work on Github:FI? (Related question: does the API work on Github:FI? It doesn't seem to, but I may be dumb.)

holman 15y ago
We're prepping for a major FI release- expect full GitHub for Mac support at that time. (And yes, FI ships with the full API as well.)
- tptacek 15y ago
  Firing off support request. Looking forward to new FI. FI has been f'ing great for us.
- foobarbazetc 15y ago
  That's the most exciting thing anyone has ever said, ever. FI needs love. :(

tednaleid 15y ago

How does this compare to Tower? It's not obvious from the website, but I'm guessing is less fully featured. Anyone with experience with both who can comment?

abahgat 15y ago
I used Tower for a while, and I didn't have the chance to test Git for Mac yet (will do later today when I'll be using my Mac). One thing that Tower can do quite well is dealing with multiple remote repositories (e.g. github + heroku). If GitHub for Mac does that as well, I believe I'm going to switch to that.
- hamedh 15y ago
  it only works on github
  - technoweenie 15y ago
    Correction: It only works with a single 'origin' remote. It should work fine with any smart http git host. Someone in this thread mentioned it working just fine with Assembla.
    - mattyb 15y ago
      And here are the docs for Git hosts who haven't yet implemented smart http: http://progit.org/2010/03/04/smart-http.html http://progit.org/2010/03/04/smart-http.html
chrisrogers 15y ago
I have been using Tower almost daily since it was released in beta some months ago. The feature set it comparable, with the biggest missing feature being individual file rollback. Tags and stashes, as well, do not seem to be supported in github for mac. Perhaps I have simply not found them in the interface yet. In terms of workflow, performing tasks in github for mac is more cumbersome. The gui, while nice, does not fit all that well to a fast git workflow. You must wait for panes to load separately from one another, so one code review and commit may involve loading several panes. This is much different from Tower, which tends to keep most tasks present in the main window. In a dual-monitor setup, Tower works well when occupying a screen, while github for mac would be wasting space if used in that format. The history browser, too, is quite simplistic. Tower can render commit history in the way that github for mac has chosen to do it, but I prefer the way that gity and others have allowed a history list and commit tree. One thing I like about Tower is the ability to scroll down a commit history and instantly see the diffs of that commit. With github for mac, you must click on a commit and bring up the diff in the whole window -- which seems a symptom of its non-multitasking workflow. At this point, I could not see myself using this over Tower in any project scope, though this is of course tinged by my experience with working with Tower. It is very nice that github for mac is free, and having more offerings in the space is going to be great for innovation, but I do wish they had taken a different approach with their interface. Perhaps more to like will come of further use.

macrael 15y ago

It seems clear that GitHub's goal is to make git useable. I'm super excited about everything they can do in that direction. Git's underlying model is fantastic, but it's UI is lacking. Bravo GitHub.

deleted 15y ago
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- jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
  The command line is actually a kind of user interface.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- xiaoma 15y ago
  I would say that the command line is an eminent non-graphical variant of a GUI, thus a canonical UI. GUI = graphical user interface GUI - graphical = UI
  - thepumpkin1979 15y ago
    +1 CLI = command-line interface
    - mkramlich 15y ago
      and the beauty of CLI is that, unlike with a GUI, a CLI can serve as both a human UI, and a machine UI or API. and it does the latter for free. give me a binary-only program with a CLI interface and I can build other things on top of it, put it into a pipeline, turn it into a cronjob, etc. give me a binary-only GUI? often nothing you can build on it
      - deno 15y ago

dabeeeenster 15y ago

It works with central repos other than github too - it picked up assembla repos I had and pushes to them no problem. Great stuff.

gmac 15y ago

This looks awesome, but is it too soon for a feature request? I'd love a side-by-side diff view, FileMerge style.

glenngillen 15y ago
while we're at the feature requests, multiple accounts? I've got a "business-y" type one and a personal one
- philfreo 15y ago
  Why have multiple accounts? The idea is that you have Organizations for business stuff, and you just switch "contexts" between personal and organizations.

kmfrk 15y ago

Free, too. GitHub don't mess around. Any plans for putting it in the Mac App Store?

abahgat 15y ago
Keeping it free would perfectly make sense on the long run too, IMHO. It could attract a lot more users to githubcom and FI.
joshaber 15y ago
Yes. But the update experience for Mac App Store apps is so bad right now that it's a bit discouraging.
- gt384u 15y ago
  What about the update experience do you find so bad/discouraging?
  - joshaber 15y ago
    It takes days/weeks for Apple to approve updates and then users have to consciously open the Mac App Store app and download them.

joshuacc 15y ago

This looks awesome. I really hope that their next move is to create a Windows version, as I haven't yet found a Windows Git GUI that I like.

SkyMarshal 15y ago
They'd have to create a Windows version of Git first, wouldn't they? Then the GUI.
- joshuacc 15y ago
  I've been running Git on Windows for several months. I don't see any reason why they can't take advantage of the existing work in that area. http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3 http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3
  - seabee 15y ago
    It's been usable for over a year, even. Grandparent's comment is really dated. I mean, it's not as if GitHub don't have Windows instructions... http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git/ http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git/
iaskwhy 15y ago
Two days ago I gave SmartGit a try and don't really see a reason to look back: http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/ http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/
- joshuacc 15y ago
  Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.
  - smhinsey 15y ago
    Git Extensions is not bad either, although I'm not using the VS addins. The GUI is nice for visualizing histories and things like that.

sant0sk1 15y ago

Awesome! Gorgeous! Thanks! Now, when will we be able to stage parts of files like we can with GitX? ;)

jonursenbach 15y ago

Will be interesting to see if they integrate issues and wiki into this. For a first release though, I'm impressed. Edit: Also would love to see this integrated with notifications so I can get Growl popups.

davepeck 15y ago
Not that this contributes much to the conversation but: YES on both counts. I use GitHub's issue tracker in volume both for some fairly large projects (getcloak.com, walkscore.com, and wherebe.us) I've found that the Issues web interface leaves a lot to be desired. It's a fine v1 [v2 technically], but somewhat painful in practice once you have more than a handful of issues. The 280 North issues app was interesting but hasn't kept up with the latest GitHub features. As for Growl: it would be great to have it built in. In the interim, there's this: https://github.com/miyagawa/github-growler/downloads https://github.com/miyagawa/github-growler/downloads
thilo 15y ago
Yes, that would be great. There are already plenty of okay Git GUI clients out there to manage your repository locally, but what I miss is the ability to edit (and preview!) the wiki locally. You can sync the contents via git, but then you are left with editing the raw source files directly.

dchest 15y ago

I hate all the visual clutter and unjustified complexity the new stylish iOS-like interfaces bring. Those interfaces are only good for Twitter and friends (and for screenshots). Some feedback: * Get rid of huge spacing everywhere (for example here: http://github-images.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2011/mac-screenshots/changes-full.png http://github-images.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/2011/mac-screensh...) * Make animations go faster. * History should have preview pane with diffs (see Mail) instead of making me click on commits. * There are windows on Macs. You can use them instead of [edit: or in addition to] making me navigate inside a single window. * Loading indicators are annoying. Move them to bottom (there it won't distract me, but I'll know that it's still loading). Oh, and congrats on release.

kenneth_reitz 15y ago
I love this app so much. However, +10 for "Make animations go faster".
codyrobbins 15y ago
Agreed—the concept of porting UIKit to OS X is insane to me. The Mac desktop is not an iPhone! I don’t want to interact with a desktop app as if I were on a phone—especially not an app that I’m ostensibly supposed to use for development. That said, creating a desktop interface for GitHub is a brilliant move. Bravo!
KingOfB 15y ago
There are windows on macs, but it appears Macs are going away from them with the full screen apps. Look at all of Apple's apps - they're all going single window. Document based apps can still have multiple windows, but everything is self contained.
- dchest 15y ago
  I don't see what's changed in 10.7 regarding windows. Can you point the app that had multiple windows, but moved to something else? But you're right that you can avoid using multiple windows in the app if it's good for usability. My point is that currently it's not possible to have two repositories opened simultaneously; especially since on OS X it's difficult to open two instances of the same application. (As an example, in Mail you have previews in a single window, but you can also double-click the message to open it in a separate window).

deleted 15y ago

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beaumartinez 15y ago

I wonder why they've released a client for OS X and not another OS―if anything, Windows is pretty lacking in git love. Whose is its target audience and the desired function? New users, to reel them in with a shiny UI? Or established users who don't use it much, to make the experience simpler? (And if it's established users who use it much―isn't the command-line faster for them?) If they want more users to use GitHub, surely a GitHub for Windows makes more sense (unless this is an employee's side-project gone primetime).

canistr 15y ago
I agree. My command-line experience is faster and keeps my work flow the same whether I'm developing on OS X or Linux. The added GUI would serve to slow me down but if I really wanted to see changes visually, I could just go to github.com and do everything I need there since I know where everything is.
sunchild 15y ago
Perhaps because it's easier to develop something like this for OS X?
- sunchild 15y ago
  Apparently not! http://warpspire.com/posts/designing-github-mac/ http://warpspire.com/posts/designing-github-mac/
calloc 15y ago
Honestly I think it is the first platform because many of the github developers are Mac users.
kneath 15y ago
Because we all use OS X. Build what you use first, expand from there.

jamiequint 15y ago

Still extremely buggy, I was only able to load one of my repos, others failed with error messages like this: http://bit.ly/iJzNmp http://bit.ly/iJzNmp and even the successful ones came up with errors after loading.

brown9-2 15y ago
There is really no need to use a URL shortener when posting links here. The HN software will abbreviate the link text on it's own if it is too long. It's a little annoying to have to guess where a link is going to forward to.
- jamiequint 15y ago
  GrabBox automatically shortens my screenshot links. Click if you dare. IMHO they should have used bitly pro and their own shortener for marketing the thing.

LoonyPandora 15y ago

It's a good first attempt, but it's not quite there yet and won't replace gitbox in my workflow. The big problem is that it will only work with the origin remote [1]. This means no pulling in upstream changes, then pushing it to your fork - doing this on multiple branches with the command line is a pain, and something a GUI would be great for. The interface feels a little half baked too, e.g why the multiple overlapping sidebars - one blue, one black, why not just merge them? [1]http://mac.github.com/help http://mac.github.com/help

clutchski 15y ago

It's interesting to see such a killer web company start investing in native apps.

puredemo 15y ago
Shows a lot of versatility. I'm impressed.

csmajorfive 15y ago

This app is great. I've been waiting for something like this. I hope they iterate on the staging/commit UI because, as is, I'm still going to use GitX to preview and selectively stage things. Some suggestions: * Get rid of expand/collapse and checkmark pattern. Let me see two lists of files -- changed and staged. If I click on one, show the changes. * Staging by chunk & line. * Squashing with the previous commit.

sjs 15y ago
And if staging by line never failed that would be stellar ;)

bluehex 15y ago

Downloaded and played with the App a bit. While it's beautiful and a great first version, I don't think it really provides anything that GitX doesn't already do better. I can see how this tool might be valuable for someone who's intimidated by git, because it's hiding a lot of what's going on. But in it's current state I wouldn't use this for more than training wheels. If / when they add pull request support and other Github specific features I might come around.

hamedh 15y ago

looks great, would be awesome to have keyboard shortcuts to go back/forward

pnathan 15y ago

Oh, hey! This is awesome! I am going to investigate this for my GitHub project.

newman314 15y ago

How does this compare with Git Tower?

veidr 15y ago
Well, for one thing, they both have very pretty UIs that are severely dysfunctional in exactly the same way: you can only have one window open at a time, which means you can't use the app to look at two repos at the same time. For seriously using git for development, I find that pretty nuts. Every time I want to browse a different repository, I have to destroy all the work I did opening the window for the current repo and drilling down through the UI to get to the part I am interested in? Seems crazy. I think more apps would do well to learn from the windowing strategy of Mail.app on Mac. It too has a monolithic main window where everything happens--but Cmd-Opt-N creates a "New Viewer Window". Another complete window with all the power of the first. Search for foo in window 1, read mail list bar in window 2. This sort of arrangement would make Github for Mac (and Tower) worth looking at. As it is, if I have to throw away several seconds of work every single time I open another repo, those seconds are going to add up -- and annoy me -- very quickly. (By the way, just to check, I tried out making a few copies of the app and opening multiple repos that way. Just like Tower, the app started to puke modal error dialogs and show blank windows, so that doesn't work.)

frr149 15y ago

Great news, except… it's "for Mac", not for iOS, folks. There's plenty of space on my MBP 17'' screen, so don't treat it as if it was an iPhone.

DrCatbox 15y ago

Is there something like this for GNU/Linux ?

ya3r 15y ago

Guys, I must get a mac!

ghotli 15y ago
Since you're new here I'll just give you an FYI. This kind of comment is going to get you downvotes because it doesn't add anything tangible to the discussion. We value a really high signal to noise ratio.
- ya3r 15y ago
  Noted. Thanks

rjh29 15y ago

I'm sorry, but in the world of awesomely-licensed Qt and other cross-platform toolkits, why would you go out of your way to build a native app on Mac libraries and only release it for a single platform? I can understand that OS X probably has the biggest share of GitHub visitors, but git is fully open source, GitHub seem to very much like open source, and in the spirit of that I'd expect a native app that works on as many platforms as possible.

eddieplan9 15y ago
a native app that works on as many platforms as possible The definition of native app has changed. It's no longer a synonym for compiled binary; or using native widget. It is not as simple as coding your UI in a cross-platform toolkit. In these days, a native app means something that feels like the built-in apps: it's beyond skinning and appearance and is more about how the app as a whole interacts with the user to get the job done. As the platforms diverge, it's now really hard - if not impossible - to make a cross-platform native app. Among Performance, Cost, Time, Scope, you can only pick three. GitHub sacrifices the scope.
- rmc 15y ago
  The narrowing is almost due to web apps being much more full featured. Web apps are the cross platform write once applications we were promised.
pornel 15y ago
I haven't seen Qt application on OS X that has look'n'feel of first-class native application. Qt apps are in uncanny valley on OS X. Apparently, GitHub chose to do best they can for one platform instead of something that is merely good enough on few platforms.
catch23 15y ago
Reminds me of when Intuit was building out Quicken -- most of their versions were built using cross platform tools, but inside the code it became a big mess and most recently they decided to scrap the whole thing and re-write the mac client in native objective-c instead of c++ Sure you can build cross-platform stuff using Java or QT, but has anyone actually liked the stuff that came out from that?

eli 15y ago

That's cool and all, but a Windows client would make a lot more business sense. There are already a couple of nice git clients for Mac. There aren't for Windows. And I assume github is targeting SMB with its paid offerings. Unless you're a design shop or a hip startup, odds are you're not running OS X. Based on my unscientific data, most companies have the devs working on Windows (or occasionally Linux).

getsat 15y ago
A Windows client doesn't make sense when most (all?) Github employees are on Macs. Mac is higher priority than Windows.
- jbellis 15y ago
  I get that dogfooding is important, but github employees aren't the target market.
  - catch23 15y ago
    Github employees are the target market, they use Git don't they? What use is developing a windows app that none of the developers will use initially?
    - eli 15y ago
      Selling software where the target market is exactly the same as the people writing it seems like it's the exception not the rule. I assume most OpenTable devs do not own a restaurant.
      - catch23 15y ago
        sounds like a strawman argument to me...
- eli 15y ago
  Sure, but my point is that most of Github's potential customers are not on Macs.

jarin 15y ago

It looks really nice, but I don't see myself switching from command-line Git (except for maybe when viewing logs and/or diffs). This will definitely be awesome for working with designers though.

antihero 15y ago

Do they have a linux client?

tobylane 15y ago

If you're interested, here are the decent (looking, not used) alternatives - Brother's Gitx fork http://brotherbard.com/blog/2010/03/experimental-gitx-fork/ http://brotherbard.com/blog/2010/03/experimental-gitx-fork/ Gitbox http://gitboxapp.com/ http://gitboxapp.com/ and Gitx http://gitx.frim.nl/ http://gitx.frim.nl/

watty 15y ago

Mac: Tower, GitX, GitBox, GitHub, Sprout, Gitti, SourceTree ... Windows: TortoiseGit?

scrrr 15y ago
and there's always git gui
uses 15y ago
Git Extensions is pretty nice for Windows. http://code.google.com/p/gitextensions/ http://code.google.com/p/gitextensions/
- danssig 15y ago
  "nice" is going to far but it's completely workable. Better to use that than SVN in any case.

theycallmemorty 15y ago

Am I justified in being disappointed this doesn't support OS X 10.4 (Tiger)?

dolinsky 15y ago
I think you mean "Is it reasonable to be disappointed this doesn't support 10.4", in which case no, I don't think it's reasonable. 10.4 stopped being updated in Nov '07.

peterbraden 15y ago

It seems there's no way to log out. This is a fairly major omission.

spicyj 15y ago
Simply delete your username/email and password from the app preferences window.
- peterbraden 15y ago
  that doesn't log you out - all the data is still visible in the app.

js4all 15y ago

What a great "out of the box" experience. Unpacked it, entered my github login data and synced my repos. No hassling with ssh keys, no setup, no other questions asked. This is great for beginners and pros. Thanks.

speg 15y ago

Hot damn! This is a sweet app. I've been trying to get into github but I do not like the command line. This is a sweet app and should get many n00bs like me into github.

kevinherron 15y ago

What ever happened to the Kickstarter project to create a native GitHub app? Is this it? Is this something else? Is that project now doomed? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sferik/hubcap-a-github-client-for-mac-os-x http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sferik/hubcap-a-github-c...

martey 15y ago
sferik, the developer of that project, has talked a bit about his thoughts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83585135836016640 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83585135836016640 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83588359066353664 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83588359066353664 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83600376061894656 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83600376061894656 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83616031309967360 https://twitter.com/#!/sferik/status/83616031309967360
jonursenbach 15y ago
Mused on Twitter earlier about this but got shot down by @kneath. Thought it was interesting that Hubcap was in the first screenshot on the blog post and @kneath himself was a backer of the project, meaning that he's had an inside look into the development of Hubcap while they've been creating Github for Mac. Conspiracy theory I know, but I thought it was interesting at least.

ashleyw 15y ago

First time an application has been unsupported on my Core Duo (32bit) Macbook Pro. Is there a reason for it, does the application really require a 64bit OS, or did the GitHub guys just forget about us early Intel Mac owners?

michaelschade 15y ago
Wondering the same thing, disappointed to see that I can't try it out :( I know that Lion will be dropping support for us 32-bit Mac users, but it still sucks to see apps jumping on that bandwagon so quickly.
joshaber 15y ago
It was intentional. There are differences between the 32- and 64-bit ABIs that make life easier for us to go 64-bit only.
- ashleyw 15y ago
  Fair enough, I'd probably do the same if I wasn't a CoreDuo owner myself, especially since Lion's dropping support too.

jessep 15y ago

It stalled after I entered my credentials. It's just been sitting there for 10 minutes.

asifjamil 15y ago
not sure if its related, but i keep getting an authentication error; can't seem to figure out what's going on http://cl.ly/7roP http://cl.ly/7roP

leon_ 15y ago

Hmm, tried it out. Going "back" to plain old cli git. I got so used to the command line that I'm faster with it.

neovive 15y ago

Looks great! One more reason for developers to move over to Git and a great way to get more people on GitHub. On another note, I wonder if this is another example of how native applications are gaining momentum on the desktop as a carry-over from the mobile apps industry. Perhaps, more companies will begin asking the question "if native apps beat web apps on mobile devices, why not on the desktop as well?"

senko 15y ago

How much of the client is GitHub specific, and how much is plain 'ol Git? Does it make sense to use it w/o using GitHub? Couldn't find that info in either the announcement post, GitHub for Mac page, or the 118 comments so far here, and don't own a Mac so can't try it for myself (still would like to know whether to recommend to other people or not, though).

nolanw 15y ago
You can certainly use the client for plain ol' Git. The GitHub-specific stuff is a "Push to GitHub" button on repositories that aren't already on GitHub, and a list of your GitHub repositories. It's more than useful without ever using GitHub the web service/site.

sunchild 15y ago

I've been using this app for a few hours now, and I have no idea how people can complain about it. It's freakin' amazing! I love it. Thank you!

sebkomianos 15y ago

I haven't used GitHub extensively but from what I was understanding the whole control via terminal was a quite educational thing on its own. I am planning to start using it though so I wanted to ask, should I stick to the terminal or am I making a big deal out of nothing?

trangatrang 15y ago

This is not going to save anyone any time over the cli, only make it easier for people who are scared of it. When I'm writing, I hate going to the mouse when I don't have to. Give me a GUI where I can still use my keyboard and I'd pay a hundred bux for that shit.

chrismealy 15y ago

If you click "published" on your branch it will delete it! Watch out!

spicycode 15y ago
Just click it again and it will re-publish it.
- chrismealy 15y ago
  Not when you don't have the branch checked out.

skant 15y ago

My Organization Repos don't show up.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

kbd 15y ago

Given that github is written in Ruby, I wonder if they evaluated MacRuby before writing their Mac client.

tjogin 15y ago

The Github guys just never cease to impress me. They've made development so much more enjoyable. And at any given time, you can expect them to not only do the right thing, but to do better than that. Like, releasing a great Git app for free, hoping to get more people to use Git, and thereby Github, and thereby becoming paying customers. A perfectly reasonable plan, but most companies don't have that foresight and patience. My hat is off to you, you rock.

stephen_g 15y ago

Looks pretty good. Why doesn't it respect .gitignore files though? I opened a C++ project and it wanted to commit about thirty object files, and things like that...

tzury 15y ago

Have you noticed this comment? https://github.com/blog/878-announcing-github-for-mac#comment-12541 https://github.com/blog/878-announcing-github-for-mac#commen... josscrowcroft commented about 16 hours ago Holy crap! Cool! All that time i spent learning Git from the command-line, WASTED. There is no doubt, a new generation of Hacker is emerging, where yourself the command-line-fu is a waste of time.

gizzlon 15y ago
It's not the command line that makes git daunting, it's everything you have to know about git to use it effectively. I don't believe a GUI can remove that without making git lot less powerful.
bradendouglass 15y ago
The CLI_FU's are just becoming more and more useful (and paid more). GIT is just becoming more and more useful for everyone from writers to designers. Those groups of people usually run with their tails between their legs away from the command line.

arturadib 15y ago

It's crashing quite a bit with me - all I do is to fire it up via /usr/local/bin/github while inside a repo. It displays the changes, but more often than not it crashes...

StrawberryFrog 15y ago

I don't get it. If I made a windows desktop client for a popular website, would anyone at all even care? Github (the website ) is great, it works well. The thinking that a website is a poor substitute for a native app is increasingly outdated. Github is an example of this, it does a lot on the web. What extra does this app bring to the table? What does it make possible or easier that I can't do on the website or in TortoiseGit?

bradhe 15y ago
>Github is an example of this, it does a lot on the web. I agree, and not really enough actually -- they seriously need to work on their UX and it's disappointing that this is the direction they're going.
fanf2 15y ago
It's an offline GUI for local git repositories.
- StrawberryFrog 15y ago
  So, just like Tortoisegit? I'm still not getting the Unique Selling Point. Or is this just a case of the intersection of Github fanboys and Mac fanboys? Once both of those factors are removed, I'm not seeing the magic.

john8954 15y ago

its good to read this ...