Installing GitHub Desktop

What is GitHub?

Git is the de facto code version control system. It tracks changes to code as we are editing, allowing us more complicated ways of saving and managing our code. GitHub is a website that provides a fancy GUI (graphical user interface) to access the tools of Git without needing CLI (command line interface), and also allows our code to be stored in the cloud, so that one member’s changes are visible to everyone. We can track everyone’s contributions from their device, see where mistakes or bugs may have occurred, and revert as necessary. read more on GIT and Github GitHub Desktop is an application used to interface between the two of them.

Standard Installation

GitHub does not support GitHub desktop for Linux, but there are alternatives or ported versions

Download

  1. Navigate to
      https://github.com/apps/desktop

 

  1. Click “Download now”

 

  1. Click “Download for your device (Windows, Mac, etc.)”

 

  1. Proceed to the Installation process respective of your device.

Install

MacOS

  1. Unzip GitHub zip file

 
 Accept any warnings.

 

  1. Run executable in downloads folder (and move to applications folder if necessary)

 

Voila! Installed.

On either device, log in to your GitHub account. Await further instruction to receive invitation to our organization. Then, add the repository to your device either through the GitHub Desktop app, or on the GitHub repository website.

Windows

  1. Run executable (and give administrative rights if necessary). This is mostly an automated process.

 

Voila! Installed.

 

On either device, log in to your GitHub account. Await further instruction to receive invitation to our organization. Then, add the repository to your device either through the GitHub Desktop app, or on the GitHub repository website.

Installing GitKraken (Alternative to GitHub Desktop)

Windows & Mac

The process is as self explanatory as installing GitHub GUI, just using a different installation URL.

Go to https://www.gitkraken.com/download and select for your operating system, and run the installation process following the directions on screen.

Linux

Depending on your distro, download the according file, whether that be a .rpm / .deb / .tar.gz (or use Snap Package Manager, depending on your support and prior installation of it). This process should be familiar to you if you are already familiar with Linux.

.deb File

Run (in the same directory as the downloaded file)

sudo dpkg -i gitkraken-amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f  # f is to fix dependencies if needed

.rpm File

Install with (in same directory) sudo rpm -i gitkraken-amd64.rpm

.tar.gz File

If you’re here, you already know how to execute the steps necessary to properly use a .tar.gz archive; otherwise, it’s more hassle than it’s worth to get started as a beginner here.

Verify your gitkraken installation with gitkraken --version (& verify your Git too, this will come with GitKraken) git --version

Installing Git CLI

Real alphas don’t need convenient things like applications. (Just kidding!) But seriously though, it is useful to know the commands and understand Git from the CLI perspective, but this setup could be a time waster long term, especially for a beginner. Any of the standard installation procedures will automatically install Git anyway.

Installing the GitHub GUI automatically installs Git, because Git is a dependency of GitHub. However, if you would like to install the CLI manually, below are the steps.

Windows:

Launch Powershell (using the start menu or Win+R)

Run

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

Breakdown of this Powershell line: We are telling winget, the preinstalled package manager on windows, to search for Git from Microsoft official records and to then install it (and to also verify that it is indeed the only Git in the Microsoft record)

On either device, run git --version to verify successful installation of Git. To see the exact file location on Windows, type where git, and on Mac & Linux, which git

MacOS:

Install HomeBrew first. It is a package manager essential to using MacOS CLI Commands. (Its technically possible to install Git without HomeBrew, but there’s no reason to not have Brew installed anyway, its essential for every MacOS developer.)

Open Spotlight, and search for Terminal.app

Type this in.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Explanation of command: /bin/bash tells the pre-existing shell to run the following, which is to cURL, fetch from the web, the Homebrew installation script, install.sh, over ssl, which is secure way to fetch files. The file can be verified to be authentic or not by navigating to the URL in the script and ensuring it isn’t malicious.

Homebrew may prompt you along the installation. Follow and accept.

To confirm successful Brew installation, run

brew --version

Something should show on screen thats not an error. (homebrew will install to /opt/homebrew, but running which brew will show you specifically if the directory differs.)

Now, we can proceed to install Git. In the same terminal window, run

brew install git

This tells Brew (not bin\bash like earlier) to install Git from its records.

On either device, run git --version to verify successful installation of Git. To see the exact file location on Windows, type where git, and on Mac & Linux, which git

Linux:

This can really depend on your distribution. If you already have gotten Linux, you will know how to determine your distribution.

In your terminal, execute based on your distribution:

Ubuntu / Debian-based: (most common)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git

Fedora:

sudo dnf install git

Arch / Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S git

openSUSE:

sudo zypper install git

In each of these commands, all we are telling the computer to do is to act as the administrator with full rights, to reference the operating system’s package manager (like winget or brew) to install Git from their records.

To check where Git is installed in Linux, run

which git

Verify installation (all devices):

git --version

You can learn about all the Git commands here