Oleg Andreev

I’m happy to announce that Gitbox reached its first major milestone: a first commercial release. It is a great version control app for working with Git repositories. Instead of cutting down the powerful, but complicated concepts of Git, Gitbox embraces them with a truly elegant user interface. Many people start actually using branches in Git thanks to Gitbox.

Download Gitbox 1.0 now. Use coupon GITBOXNOV before December 1st to get 30% discount.

Since the last preview version, a lot of things have changed. I have worked out a strong vision of what kind of product I want to create. As a part of it, I have redesigned the user interface and reengineered the underpinnings. Now all the repositories live inside a single window and the app itself is running on Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) on Snow Leopard. Translation: Gitbox is faster and easier to use.

A couple of thoughts on licensing policy: usually commercial software comes in two flavors: a full and a trial. Here’s the problem: when I download a trial version it is usually limited to 14-30 days of free use. I may try the software for a couple of minutes, then put it aside and forget about it until I have a real need in it (or some very handy feature is released). When I come back to the newer version, it appears I cannot try it any longer!

Gitbox does not do that. You may try it right now and for as long as you want. You also have all the features available with only one fair limitation: only one repository opened at a time. Why is it fair? Because if you don’t find Gitbox useful enough to pack it with all your repositories and use it every day, I don’t want your money. Instead, I would be happy to listen to you and make it better.

When you do buy a license, you get more than you paid for. First, all updates are free (some really cool features are coming soon). Second, you may use the app on all your machines without any sorts of spyware, activation etc. The only limitation is that the license is for personal use. If you want to buy Gitbox for a group, you should buy an appropriate number of individual licenses. Contact me if you’d like to get a discount in that case.

I will release new features and incremental design improvements regularly in a form of free software updates. As the app becomes more powerful and better designed, the price is likely to rise. Since the updates are free, this idea should convince you to buy a license early at a lower price ;-)

I’m very thankful to my family, colleagues at Pierlis and all the folks who were using preview versions and giving a lot of priceless feedback.

Let’s get it started.

In a software business, the functionality is an asset, but code is a liability. The less code needs your attention, less costs and risks you have.

OOP is all about making stuff work, packaging it into an object with as small interface as possible, and building other stuff around without going back and tinkering with that package. Note to Java people: it does _not_ mean the object should fit everything. It should fit at least a single task and be reliable at that task. The point is in reliability, not reusability.

This concept is called “incapsulation”. It is not the way to make the code nice. It is the way to minimize your costs and risks and finally ship.