sudo rpm --import https://mirror.mwt.me/shiftkey-desktop/gpgkey 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://mirror.mwt.me/shiftkey-desktop/gpgkey" > /etc/yum.repos.d/shiftkey-desktop.repo'
sudo dnf install github-desktop # or yum
If GitHub Desktop proves too finicky, consider these native Linux Git clients: github desktop linux 2023
If the official build fails, the shiftkey fork remains the most reliable way to run GitHub Desktop on Linux in 2023. This fork has been actively maintained since 2017 and includes Linux-specific patches that GitHub’s own experimental build lacks.
Why use Shiftkey in 2023?
For years, the absence of an official Linux client was a glaring hypocrisy. GitHub’s core infrastructure—the runners, the deployment systems, the very CI/CD pipelines—ran overwhelmingly on Linux. Yet, from its 2015 Electron-based rewrite until 2021, GitHub Desktop existed only for macOS and Windows. The community’s response was a testament to open-source resilience: unofficial wrappers like githubelectron and third-party builds from shiftkey (a GitHub employee acting in personal capacity) kept the flame alive. These forks were functional but lagged behind official releases, lacked proper sandboxing, and required manual updates.
Why the delay? Three intertwined reasons stand out: sudo rpm --import https://mirror
By 2023, however, the pressure had become untenable. The rise of lightweight, Git-centric editors like VS Code (which bundles Git GUIs) and platforms like GitLab (with robust web-based merge conflict editors) threatened to make GitHub Desktop irrelevant. The stable release was a defensive move: retain the hobbyist and junior developer who finds git rebase --interactive intimidating.
Fix: Log out, remove ~/.config/GitHub Desktop, and log in again. This clears corrupted OAuth tokens. If GitHub Desktop proves too finicky, consider these
A community Flatpak (io.github.shiftkey.desktop) was available but flagged as "unofficial-unofficial" — often lagged behind the .deb/rpm releases and had filesystem permission issues.