Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs?

Posted by gcau on Friday November 25, 2022 @04:10AM
from the ask-hn dept.

For years I used Atom's git GUI, and now that atom is being sunsetted, it has mysteriously started becoming buggy. I use VSCode as my IDE. I've tried: Sourcetree, GitKraken, VSCodes git gui, github desktop, and more. I really cannot stand them, there's 5000 UI elements and text everywhere, things are not laid out intuitively, things are in random places. I gave them a serious try, especially sourcetree (as it seemed the best of them all) and uninstalled it out of pure frustration.

My work process is this: use atoms ui (its very simple) for 99% of my git needs, and in the 1% I need something else, I use the CLI. I don't want every single git feature fit into ui elements on a single screen. I don't want to use the CLI 100%, because its just simply slower, and takes more effort, for most things.

Atom git gui screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/33EkpTu.png

Git kraken screenshot (for comparison): https://www.gitkraken.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/index-thumbnail.png

( 33 comments | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by hsn915 on Friday November 25, 2022 @04:11AM (#33740630)

Have you tried Gitup?

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by KingMob on Friday November 25, 2022 @08:42AM (#33742278)

Seconding Gitup. It was one of the first Git GUIs to map Cmd-Z to undo anything you did, making it very easy to play around and learn new stuff.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by db48x on Friday November 25, 2022 @04:12AM (#33740635)

Try Magit.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by DemocracyFTW2 on Friday November 25, 2022 @04:51AM (#33740868)

I can recommend https://www.sublimemerge.com

It's fast and nice to work with. I actually use it in conjunction with the command line (zsh w/ autocomplete so I normally only type the first one or two letters of each recurrent command to get the completion, hit return, done) specifically to pick those portions of each file that I want to go into a given commit. Occasionally I use some more advanced features like file history.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by pjmlp on Friday November 25, 2022 @05:06AM (#33740947)

I use mostly TortoiseGit, https://tortoisegit.org.

As easy as it gets, no Electron boilerplate, full Windows native executable.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by jamesmunns on Friday November 25, 2022 @07:09AM (#33741648)

I learned git on tortoise git. It's definitely a good and simple option if you're on windows.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by captaindiego on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:03PM (#33744408)

It's too bad there's no cross-platform equivalent - although it might be hard as it's context menu based

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by CrypticShift on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:13AM (#33741309)

I guess you could rapidly run through all the options here : just examine the screenshot of each product to gauge its UI complexity.

https://alternativeto.net/category/developer-tools/git-clien...

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by quadral on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:19AM (#33741341)

For windows I use Git Extensions; http://gitextensions.github.io/. Really simple UI.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by signaru on Friday November 25, 2022 @01:37PM (#33745398)

Nice to see something made with C# (as someone who codes mostly in C#/VS).

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by iruoy on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:25AM (#33741375)

I mostly use the terminal, but for when I need to find stuff I like Sublime Merge.

https://www.sublimemerge.com/

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by countmora on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:26AM (#33741381)

I am using https://www.git-tower.com.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by nashashmi on Friday November 25, 2022 @10:41AM (#33743354)

I like git tower. But I don’t like their annual subscription. I guess if you were in a corporate setting, you could expense it.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by eimrine on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:36AM (#33741435)

There are a lot of recommendations here. I have never used any version control system but I feel a needness to have one for my config files such as .vimrc . Any recommentations of what should I consider for minimalization of learning process?

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by worldsavior on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:58AM (#33741570)

>I have never used any version control system

How?

Anway, git is the most standralized one, hence you should try learning it. You can look at git-scm docs, experience with some repositories, use your own repo and things that make you use git.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by chasinglogic on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:59AM (#33741581)

It uses git under the covers but my tool for dotfile management abstracts over it so you rarely have to interact unless you want to:

https://github.com/chasinglogic/dfm

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by NikkiA on Friday November 25, 2022 @09:03AM (#33742454)

My recommendation is yadm, which is built on top of git

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by scanny on Friday November 25, 2022 @06:58AM (#33741575)

I use git graph (VS Code Extension). It is very visual and you can interact with git functionality through the tree visualisation itself.

It shows the git tree and includes a diff mechanism. Used it since 2019 after moving from TortoiseHg.

Demo Gif: https://github.com/mhutchie/vscode-git-graph/raw/master/reso...

Extension Page: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mhutchie...

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by Tijdreiziger on Friday November 25, 2022 @08:26AM (#33742155)

I use this + GitLens (which also appears in the demo gif you link, but collapsed).

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by iExploder on Friday November 25, 2022 @07:04AM (#33741609)

gitk, git_gui, but i used them on linux, not sure how well they would run on other platforms

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by james-skemp on Friday November 25, 2022 @07:08AM (#33741641)

Haven't used on Linux, but they work great on Windows and Mac.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by purerandomness on Friday November 25, 2022 @07:10AM (#33741660)

Jetbrains IDEs (IDEA, PHPStorm, Goland,...) have the best GUI for git that I'm aware of.

I'm a proficient CLI user, but the IDE's GUI really helps with diffs, partial commits, and is all around very convenient to use.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by lolive on Friday November 25, 2022 @01:33PM (#33745362)

The best visual diff tool ever !

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by 000001010011100 on Friday November 25, 2022 @07:36AM (#33741814)

I use gitui. Its a TUI written in rust and it is great. I mainly use it for looking at the gitlog, committing, and pushing.

https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by florianfmmartin on Friday November 25, 2022 @07:51AM (#33741915)

Check out lazygit https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by izoow on Friday November 25, 2022 @11:04AM (#33743619)

Seconding this. After trying out a bunch of git guis and being unsatisfied with all of them, I recently discovered lazygit and I absolutely love it. Simple, lightweight, doesn't get in your way, doesn't hide things from you, just an absolute pleasure to use.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by dude187 on Friday November 25, 2022 @10:25AM (#33743182)

Probably not an answer to your question, but take a look at gitk. It's more for visualization, but it comes installed with git for most distributions. I've found it's incredibly helpful for teaching people the commit tree model, or even just looking at all the diffs across a branch

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by jbverschoor on Friday November 25, 2022 @10:56AM (#33743532)

Gitbox used to be really nice.. http://gitboxapp.com/, but I just use VSCode

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by datsro on Friday November 25, 2022 @11:29AM (#33743957)

I still use Gitbox today. I think it is due for an upgrade!

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by biehl on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:31PM (#33744739)

I think Sourcetree is a very nice gui for git. https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by peanball on Friday November 25, 2022 @02:12PM (#33745780)

Fork (https://fork.dev) is my go-to. One time payment, super clear UI.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by terminal_d on Saturday November 26, 2022 @05:27AM (#33751524)

Emacs' magit is the best out there.

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Re:Ask HN: Where are the simple Git GUIs? by ioblomov on Saturday November 26, 2022 @01:21PM (#33755166)

If you're a Mac user, try GitX. Pros include:

  1. browsing/searching/sorting commit histories
  2. diffs (what you'd expect from a GUI)
  3. super lightweight

Cons are:

  1. can't resolve conflicts (but it makes easy commits easier)
  2. last release was 2014 (but it's perfectly usable as is)

http://rowanj.github.io/gitx/

[ Parent | on HN ]