5 ms·

GitHub desktop/mobile apps have been the worst thing to happen to GH since / along with the acquisition. The website is being neglected, (especially on mobile)

GitHub desktop/mobile apps have been the worst thing to happen to GH since / along with the acquisition. The website is being neglected, (especially on mobile) which is the primary value the service has for me. If I have `git` I really don't need GitHub except to view comments. Ironically, notifications and comment management is still pretty bad. Don't get me wrong, I still think GitHub is the best at what they do, but like many incumbents, I feel like they are losing a bit of what makes them so great. Polish up the features you have, we don't need endless feature releases, we need smooth features we know and love.

jerpint 4y ago
Im a heavy user of GitHub website and I find it doesn’t stop improving
thrashh 4y ago
As someone who has built GUI wrappers for perfectly working tools, it’s because support is a nightmare. There’s a subset of your users who aren’t going to invest in learning your existing tools but you still want them to use your product. You can’t write more documentation because the more documentation there is, the less people will read it. You can’t tell them to ask for support because they’ll just flood you and eventually give up. So you build a GUI for these users and they’re happy and you’re happy. Your expert users won’t understand, will complain that you’re wasting your time, but that’s a price worth paying.
slugiscool99 4y ago
The worse thing to happen to GH? Really? Using git on the command line can be hard to learn and unintuitive for people - the desktop client makes things easier and that's a good thing (kind of like how the GUI made computers accessible to more people and ended up benefiting everyone in software...)
- tracker1 4y ago
  TBH, I felt the same way for a while... but I found that I really only need to actually remember a handful of things.. git add, git commit, git pull --rebase, and the git rebase -i HEAD~N Other than those, when I need something I don't typically use, I have google. And most of those instances where it's not one of the commands above, the UI is usually pretty bad anyway. I do like the preiew/diff in VS Code a lot though on the git tab. I do wish there was a way to post-operate on the most recent commit (uncommit) via the gui though. I tend to work in a branch, regularly squashing and rebasing against upstream branch... then would prefer to be able to (via gui) uncommit the most recent commit, just so I can preview/edit a final pass at once. That is about the only workflow that I sometimes want/need that isn't really in the box, or otherwise more of a pain in the UI anyway.
ocdtrekkie 4y ago
I would use more non-GitHub solutions if they had GitHub Desktop or equivalent. The number of accidental commits I've seen by long term industry experts demonstrates that command line isn't always the best for all things. I generally avoid opening PRs on machines I don't have Desktop, which is why it's such an embarrassment GitHub has refused to publish an official Linux version, despite an employee maintaining one for years.
- brnt 4y ago
  > despite an employee maintaining one for years. Mind sharing where I can get this?
  - ocdtrekkie 4y ago
    Here: https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop
motoxpro 4y ago
Github Desktop is the best thing to happen to GH for me. Makes my workflow so much nicer.
joshcanhelp 4y ago
Completely disagree. The desktop app helps me greatly to create digestible commute and PRs. I use the command line for 99% of the actions I take but the desktop app gives me a much better visual of my changes and has helped me catch unintended (or temporary) changes many times. On the website, the Notification Center has gotten better, linked methods is very helpful, code spaces are very cool (though I haven’t gone deep on them), repo redesign is great … IMHO, only gotten better.
- nixpulvis 4y ago
  I'm just saying that they should be focused on the webapp, not slowly abandoning it and making us use the native apps.
  - bastardoperator 4y ago
    Facts over perception, go look at changelog, look at primer... The Web UI gets new features almost daily.
    - nixpulvis 4y ago
      You're missing my point. I don't want all the new features. I want the existing ones taken care of and polished.
      - noahtallen 4y ago
        In one comment, you say the webapp is abandoned. In another, you say it gets too many new features you don’t care about. If the latter is true, the former is definitely not true. That’s the main reason you’re getting some flack in this thread!
        nixpulvis 4y ago
        Sorry, let me be clear. Existing features feel abandoned and neglected. CSS styles are getting out of whack, margins and padding are way off in many places as they shoehorn in new features. You can neglect something's foundation while strapping new bells and whistles on.
nightpool 4y ago
"The website is being neglected"—really? Compared to their complete feature freeze pre-acquisition, new Github platform features come out regularly (WIP PRs, code owners, the entire Actions and Codespaces products, and Merge Queue being the most recent one). I've never used Github Desktop, but the idea that the website is being neglected just doesn't make any sense to me.
- wepzen 4y ago
  The Codespaces product is good but isn't secure. I would not use it in enterprise.
- noahtallen 4y ago
  Not to mention more in-depth notification management, much better code search, and significantly improved code browsing! (Examples of polished features.) I have been pretty impressed at the pace of new features over the past two plus years.

jerpint 4y ago

Im a heavy user of GitHub website and I find it doesn’t stop improving

thrashh 4y ago

As someone who has built GUI wrappers for perfectly working tools, it’s because support is a nightmare. There’s a subset of your users who aren’t going to invest in learning your existing tools but you still want them to use your product. You can’t write more documentation because the more documentation there is, the less people will read it. You can’t tell them to ask for support because they’ll just flood you and eventually give up. So you build a GUI for these users and they’re happy and you’re happy. Your expert users won’t understand, will complain that you’re wasting your time, but that’s a price worth paying.

slugiscool99 4y ago

The worse thing to happen to GH? Really? Using git on the command line can be hard to learn and unintuitive for people - the desktop client makes things easier and that's a good thing (kind of like how the GUI made computers accessible to more people and ended up benefiting everyone in software...)

tracker1 4y ago
TBH, I felt the same way for a while... but I found that I really only need to actually remember a handful of things.. git add, git commit, git pull --rebase, and the git rebase -i HEAD~N Other than those, when I need something I don't typically use, I have google. And most of those instances where it's not one of the commands above, the UI is usually pretty bad anyway. I do like the preiew/diff in VS Code a lot though on the git tab. I do wish there was a way to post-operate on the most recent commit (uncommit) via the gui though. I tend to work in a branch, regularly squashing and rebasing against upstream branch... then would prefer to be able to (via gui) uncommit the most recent commit, just so I can preview/edit a final pass at once. That is about the only workflow that I sometimes want/need that isn't really in the box, or otherwise more of a pain in the UI anyway.

ocdtrekkie 4y ago

I would use more non-GitHub solutions if they had GitHub Desktop or equivalent. The number of accidental commits I've seen by long term industry experts demonstrates that command line isn't always the best for all things. I generally avoid opening PRs on machines I don't have Desktop, which is why it's such an embarrassment GitHub has refused to publish an official Linux version, despite an employee maintaining one for years.

brnt 4y ago
> despite an employee maintaining one for years. Mind sharing where I can get this?
- ocdtrekkie 4y ago
  Here: https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop

motoxpro 4y ago

Github Desktop is the best thing to happen to GH for me. Makes my workflow so much nicer.

joshcanhelp 4y ago

Completely disagree. The desktop app helps me greatly to create digestible commute and PRs. I use the command line for 99% of the actions I take but the desktop app gives me a much better visual of my changes and has helped me catch unintended (or temporary) changes many times. On the website, the Notification Center has gotten better, linked methods is very helpful, code spaces are very cool (though I haven’t gone deep on them), repo redesign is great … IMHO, only gotten better.

nixpulvis 4y ago
I'm just saying that they should be focused on the webapp, not slowly abandoning it and making us use the native apps.
- bastardoperator 4y ago
  Facts over perception, go look at changelog, look at primer... The Web UI gets new features almost daily.
  - nixpulvis 4y ago
    You're missing my point. I don't want all the new features. I want the existing ones taken care of and polished.
    - noahtallen 4y ago
      In one comment, you say the webapp is abandoned. In another, you say it gets too many new features you don’t care about. If the latter is true, the former is definitely not true. That’s the main reason you’re getting some flack in this thread!
      - nixpulvis 4y ago
        Sorry, let me be clear. Existing features feel abandoned and neglected. CSS styles are getting out of whack, margins and padding are way off in many places as they shoehorn in new features. You can neglect something's foundation while strapping new bells and whistles on.

nightpool 4y ago

"The website is being neglected"—really? Compared to their complete feature freeze pre-acquisition, new Github platform features come out regularly (WIP PRs, code owners, the entire Actions and Codespaces products, and Merge Queue being the most recent one). I've never used Github Desktop, but the idea that the website is being neglected just doesn't make any sense to me.

wepzen 4y ago
The Codespaces product is good but isn't secure. I would not use it in enterprise.
noahtallen 4y ago
Not to mention more in-depth notification management, much better code search, and significantly improved code browsing! (Examples of polished features.) I have been pretty impressed at the pace of new features over the past two plus years.