Why bother learning Git when I can use GitHub desktop interface? [closed]

Question

This is a noob question so treat with patience please:
I just started using Git, and cannot figure out why should I bother learning the bits and bytes of Git when I can use the GitHub desktop interface?
It's much faster and more intuitive. And all in all, Git is only a version control environment.
Am I missing something here?

Answer 1

By "GitHub Desktop Interface" I assume you mean "GitHub for Windows". GitHub for Windows can't do everything that command-line Git can. It is just a UI around the most common Git commands. For example, last time I used it, you couldn't stash, cherrypick merge, commit amend, manage remotes, etc.

That would be my argument for learning at least some Git command line. Though I do agree that for seeing a diff of what files has changed, or selecting only a few files to commit with checkboxes, a UI tool can be easier (I frequently use SourceTree to visually review changes, and the command line for checkouts, branching, merging, etc).

If by "bits and bytes of Git" you actually mean understanding how the files, blobs and trees work inside the .git folder, then I suppose you don't really need to know that stuff, but to me it is a lot like asking "why do I need to know how a combustion engine works when all I have to do is turn the key?" Some of us just really like to know how stuff works... I mean, I learned assembly and memory addressing in college, but that doesn't really apply to high-level languages directly. However, it does help understand at a fundamental level what is going on internally when you need to do heavy problem solving.