Install Software

The only required software to have a git repository is: git. git is a command-line tool, which works well for those who are used to working on the command line as a day-in-day-out part of software development.

Most people who are just learning to code, however, tend to benefit from having some graphical-user-interface (GUI) tool instead of the command line. There are lots of choices when it comes to tools to help manage your git repository, especially when it comes to keeping everything in-sync with the "cloud" version of your repo. Two popular ones are GitKraken and GitHub Desktop.

Besides the tools for working with the git repository, you will also want tools to create and edit the files in your repository. Because repositories typically contain text-based files, you will likely want a text editor, such as Visual Studio Code, Sublime, Notepad, or some IDE like Visual Studio 2019.

GitKraken

GitKraken (by axosoft) offers a powerful user interface to handle the common and not-so-common capabilities of git. If you want to know why you should choose GitKraken as your git client, you're in luck! They tell you in a page called "Why GitKraken".

GitHub Desktop

To make it easier using git and integrating with your GitHub account, the people at GitHub have created GitHub Desktop, a cross-platform application for your computer that provides a graphical user-interface over top of git. GitHub Desktop was one of the first GUI tools^[1] that made git (primarily a linux-based tool) accessible on Windows and Mac. GitHub Desktop offers a simpler user interface than GitKraken, and as such focuses on supporting a GUI for the most commonly used git functionality.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is an easy to use and widely popular text-editing environment for all kinds of development. It runs on any operating system (Windows, Mac, *nix), and it's capabilities can be expanded with plugins. It also has built-in support for git repositories, so you can use it in place of GitHub Desktop or GitKraken.

Git (Standalone)

If you go with any of the above tools, git comes pre-installed. You can, however, install git separate from all of these tools and use a simple text-editor like notepad for editing and manage your git repository from a command window such as PowerShell or Bash. The official git manual offers instructions for installing git on any operating system.

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1. GitHub Desktop first came out in 2012, and was one of the big reasons that git has taken hold in the Windows world, despite the alterative DVCS called "Mecurial". ↩︎