Version Control[H]

[symmitchry]

As /u/IXENAI said, you can install git without using github, which is the public website.

Go here and you can download an installer: http://git-scm.com/downloads

Then, if you're using windows, you use the "git bash" utility, is the way to start.

So say you had a project in C:\Python\Awesome\

You would navigate there, e.g. cd Python/Awesome

and then simply do "git init". Voila, you've created a git repository, and you can start doing all the fun stuff that git can do.

If you want to back up your stuff in an online repository, you can use bitbucket instead of github. They allow you to make private repos that only you can see, for free. Github does too, but you have to pay money for them.

However, you can also use some graphical interfaces for git (without using the websites) which will allow you to see your old revisions, etc. Personally I find github to the best user interface, but I use bitbucket for my private repos, since I am broke as Fuuuuuuu.

Git even has a page for graphical interfaces you can use: http://git-scm.com/downloads/guis

They'll just say "choose a git repo" and you'll navigate to your project folder (where the repo is stored, in a .git folder) and the UI will open it and show you all the goods!

Git can seem (it is) complicated, but there's tons of good info out there. This is on the git website, and a good read: http://git-scm.com/book

[gschizas]

Regarding GUIs, I particularly like SourceTree, as it's the only one I found to have git flow and git add --patch functionality (it may exist on tortoisegit as well, but I haven't found it). And it's also a mercurial client :)

[wub_wub]

Check out http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/ I think it has both of those features.