Is GitHub Desktop available for GNU/Linux?
Tags: github, linux, git, beginners
Published: 2020-08-25 14:47:52



Currently, Github Desktop for GNU/Linux is not officially supported by the GitHub, but there is a fork that hosts a version for Debian/Ubuntu & Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora distributions.

##How to get it on your desktop? 

<br>
1) Go to this link https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/releases  and look for the latest release (whatever present at the top)

2) Scroll down to the **Assets** section, click it to expand and see the downloadables.

![Github Desktop Assets](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hmcem5u64crnbe3b4g4o.png)

3) Download the `.deb`, `.rpm` or `.AppImage` depending on the distribution you're running.

`.deb` -> Dabian based distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop OS etc)
`.rpm` -> Red Hat Linux (Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, OpenMandriva etc)
`.appImage` -> Portable Version of the application (Supports all major distributions)

4) Execute the installer & install the Github Desktop in your system
<br>
##Install the Github Desktop from the command line


(**Note :** Sometimes command-line installation and updating process **won't work due to the hosting server problem of Github Desktop.** To know more you can check [this post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67568863/unable-to-update-github-desktop-for-linux-error-429-too-many-requests) or [this issue thread](https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/issues/490). In this case, avoid command-line installation and download the executable from Github releases as mentioned above)

<br>
###Debian/Ubuntu distributions

To set up the package repository, run these commands:

`wget -qO - https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/gpgkey | sudo apt-key add -`

<br>
`sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/any/ any main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/packagecloud-shiftky-desktop.list'`

<br>
`sudo apt-get update`

Then install GitHub Desktop:

`sudo apt install github-desktop`

<br>
###Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora distributions

To setup the package repository, run these commands:

`sudo rpm --import https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/gpgkey`

<br>
`sudo sh -c 'echo -e "[shiftkey]\nname=GitHub Desktop\nbaseurl=https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/el/7/\$basearch\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=0\nrepo_gpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/gpgkey" > /etc/yum.repos.d/shiftkey-desktop.repo'`

Then install GitHub Desktop:

*if yum is your package manager

`sudo yum install github-desktop`

*if dnf is your package manager

`sudo dnf install github-desktop`
<br>
### Screenshots [ Github Desktop running on Linux Mint ]

![Github Desktop](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/gxf2qiwbnvtdadgk6t47.png)

![Github Desktop create repository](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/u104abcv9r6p61xykf86.png)

![Github Desktop clone repository](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/gc4l84bn0oxtxe5f2bod.png)
<br>
References [https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop](https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop)

###[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wLBktXtsqI)

Thanks for reading :)

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