I've used Github Desktop [1] (previously known as Github for Mac) since its release (2011). I know it's not really popular, and never suggested on Hacker News, but it's personally the best GUI I've ever used.

It doesn't support any advanced features, but still covers 99% of my daily workflow (show diffs > cherry pick diffs > commit > sync). I also use it to create/delete/merge my branches. I just need a terminal for stashing. I've never encountered any problems.

It's free and you can use it with Gitlab.

[1] https://desktop.github.com

Kraken is a git gui tool that ia cross platform (OSX, Linux, Windows).

https://www.gitkraken.com/features

I wonder what frameworks are being used to build cross platform ddsktop apps. Do you use something like QT or Electron... or do you go full native?

I used to recommend them when they were offering their pro version to get some extra features but they have changed the licence so that you need to pay the subscription if you use it for any commercial work.

    Under what circumstances can I use the free Git GUI?
    If you’re using GitKraken for personal, open source, non-profit, education,
    or as a software startup with less than 20 employees and younger than one
    year, we understand the difference that a free tool can make, and we welcome
    you to use our free Git client.

I don't mind paying for a tool, but the way they went from free to "free or subscribe for extra features" to "You have to subscribe" really left a bitter taste in my mouth.

In the case of Kraken, yes, they use Electron to be cross platform.

This is like the 2nd or 3rd time this commercial product has been advertised on the front page of HN.

A bit concerning, mayhaps. But if it works and is useful...

seems like advertisement for their product. Hey HN: I come here for news not ads!

anyhow, using guis when a command line tool is available is somewhat incomprehensible to me. no offense to anyone who does though.

The news might be the Tower public beta for Windows?

I use tortoisegit on Windows, what am I missing by not using tower?

I wish there were something like Tortoise for Linux and Mac. It's certainly possible. Beyond Compare from Scooter Software implements the context menu in the file explorer on all platforms equally well.

I'm pretty sure that emacs+magit runs on both platforms.

Is this any better than SourceTree?

Yeah, Tower is legitimately the best GUI client I've ever used for Git, period.

I try to live on the CLI though so I've kinda forced myself to learn more about Git and the myriad of commands, but Tower was most certainly the best set of training wheels I could ask for.

I've been using tower on Mac for a few years now. It's miles ahead of every other git client I've tried.

The UI is very intuitive and supports even advanced features out of the box.

I switched from SourceTree to Tower after the former started to feel excessively buggy and slow. Tower seems much more stable, plus I think some of its workflows are much nicer. In particular I really appreciate how easy it is to control commits line-by-line, which is something I need to deal with on most days.

Sourcetree has been going downhill a lot lately. The last releases are pretty buggy and the UI is getting worse.

Why? Is it really that hard to just learn the command line tools?