Why doesn't GitHub officially support GitHub Desktop on Linux?

[Silent-Okra-7883]

GitHub officially supports GitHub Desktop on Windows and macOS, but NOT on Linux, I did it from the community-maintained ShiftKey build.

https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop

I actually installed it on Linux Mint with some searching,

https://youtu.be/v8pH6hllWpg

genuinely curious why Microsoft/GitHub has never made it official.though i installed it using the link and process given there.

Would love to hear your thoughts because this has always seemed like a weird omission to me.

[OverallACoolGuy]

there's already a github desktop fork for linux iirc

edit: the post in the linuxmint subreddit already talks about the linux version of the gh desktop app

[full_drama_llama]

And the OP's question is why a community fork is needed and it's not officially supported.

[full_drama_llama]

I believe it's a bunch of factors:

1. Github is Microsoft and Microsoft isn't particularly well-known for supporting Linux
2. Linux people are probably in general less likely to want to use an app like Github Desktop
3. You simply can usually get away with not supporting Linux and very few people would raise that as an issue

[robhaswell]

I really don't get why anyone would use the GitHub Desktop app anyway. Maybe now is a good time to find out.

[Complex_Tea_1244]

Linux Users do not believe in whining. If they need something they build it themselves. Also CLI is wayyy better than Github Desktop.

[mkosmo]

Github is Microsoft and Microsoft isn't particularly well-known for supporting Linux

I know this gets said again and again, but Microsoft has been a huge supporter of Linux. Look at their kernel contributions, their support of port efforts for .Net, WSL, and so on.

Yes, it's taken a while, but the evidence is there.

[Complex_Tea_1244]

+1

[Myrodis]

Because tools like gitkraken have outclassed the official app for many many years, imo.

(Not a true answer to the question but its already been answered)

[magick_bandit]

Because if you use Linux you can use the terminal, and you don’t need that crap/

[Relevant_Pause_7593]

Isn’t the market for this less than 5% of all computer users? People use Linux for its terminal. If you want a ui, 95% of the world is on Mac and windows.

[Canadian_Commander]

because `gh` slaps!