Hello!
I've been using git for a while. I love it, I know almost every single command. On windows I use mingw64 (using bash) and on linux obviously the default command line via zsh shell (don't bash me, gnome lovers! no pun intended hehehe).

However, git via terminal is bad to view whole branches flow with lots of pull requests (always have to open the github website), merges, upstreams and whatsoever. Plus I feel I waste a lot of time with the default linux commands like rm -rf, ls, cd etc..
It's (sadly) faster to just drag and drop files. So I'm willing to switch to some GUI application as it will be faster, even considering the fact that I use a ton of .sh files to save me some time.
I type in the range of 110(laid back) and 145 (full retard) WPM.. even so I feel that using the terminal is slower compared to dragging and dropping, plus the terminal is terrible to view commit comments, branch history and collaborators.

What would you guys recommend to pair github with? Sourcetree or Github desktop application itself? I researched a lot.. but most seem to be fake/paid articles, either by github fans or by sourcetree guys (atlassian(?))... So I'm here humbly asking for the superior knowledge of my d2jsp friends all around the universe.

TL;DR: I wonder what is the best desktop GUI git client, mostly with a great way to view the whole tree and having an experience similar to git, focused on speed. I've used git (only on the terminal) for years already so I know the "basics". I'll be using github as I already have a paid account, I don't even consider switching to bucket.

Thank you!

This post was edited by jacob1818 on Mar 3 2017 05:06am

Can't you leave the viewing part to github itself?

Drag and drop really REALLY will not be faster. It will be tedious, annoying and shitty. Also what exactly are you going to drop where? You code in other place than files in repo?

Also some editors like atom, vs code, sublime... also nicely integrate with git. Maybe that's what you need? Easily switching branches etc there.

i use github desktop
upside
really nice diff view
keeps track of all your projects
nice view of commit log (if you use the description on your commits, i seem to "asdf" and "changed stuff" alot)
convenient way to compare branches
easy to switch between accounts
hyperlink right on the desktop takes you to the .com

downside
not very intuitive (at least for me at first)
you have to solve conflicts in a text reader i would really like to see a good in app conflict resolution like tortoise svn has i haven't tried sourcetree
no convenient way to delete branches

i have only used it for a couple colabs but i feel like the basic functions of the app shine for individual projects because of simplicity but idk it just gets on my nerves sometimes; trying to resolve conflicts, and setting ignores especially. I probably wouldn't want to use it in a production environment with more than 5-10 branches.
for 1-3 people though gold.

This post was edited by Ideophobe on Mar 3 2017 06:03pm

Thanks for the reply boss!
I deal with some really "fat" repos, they have multiple upstreams all along the branches, so it's usually cool to know where exactly the changes are being committed... sometimes I forgot where/what am I doing and who am I working with (with a GUI you can quickly check who changed what file).
Sorry if it wasn't clear, my english isn't the best.
We have to do a lot of merges, like for example adding a downstream branch (for example: devtest1-jacob1818), forking from the branch, adding a new empty folder and then making a pull request to the upstream. We have a "static" folder in some repos, where we download some images from the internet and then have to pull-request it.. it's so faster to drag the files via GUI/explorer/finder than doing mkdir / mv / cp.

TL:DR --> adding folders with lots of random files and easily viewing who you are working with (who did the commits in the same branch you're at) while coding.



Thanks for the kind reply.
I'm giving it a shot now.. and it feels like hell lol. Might take a while to get used to...I agree 100% on it being non-intuitive.

it's an attractive app, and once you get used to it's pretty quick but i usually end up just doing everything in my IDE anymore anyway just cuz it's like already open yaknow?
but if I couldnt afford intelliJ i would probably still use it for everything

This post was edited by Ideophobe on Mar 3 2017 09:43pm

i love vs codes github integration

Sounds like you should agree on a clean workflow with your team, git log should be enough 90% of the time. I also have smartgit on my computer for whenever I try to figure out how the idiot using git desktop messed up his branch.