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I am forced to use Windows 10 on my job, so I use native Win32 Emacs.
Also use Emacs on WSL (compiled from emacs mirror though tried the default Ubuntu 18.04 too).
I tend to use more the one on WSL, as I prefer Linux-style way of working.
But both seem to be slow when working with git.

I love magit and doing git stuff with just single key presses.
Though magit relays on a git.exe in Windows or default git under WSL.
I already read the article about magit slowness on Windows and tried its recommendations.
But it is still slow, and takes seconds to respond in operations that should take milliseconds.

As a comparison, try SublimeMerge and feel your jaw dropping...
It is amazingly fast. You get instant diffs on files and branches.
I wish Emacs would be that fast.

I suspect there is no alternative to make Emacs on Windows become fast when working with git.
But I really needed to post this question.

tarsius
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nephewtom
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  • Are you able to host a GNU/Linux VM on your Windows machine? If so then you can work inside the VM where Git works far more efficiently. Install a local-to-Windows X.org display (such as Cygwin's) and you can have GUI Emacs in a Windows window as if it were Windows-native, but running on the VM. I used to use the "Ubuntu Server" distribution for this purpose (you definitely don't need a desktop environment running), and that worked well. – phils Feb 13 '19 at 03:22
  • FWIW when I experimented with using WSL in a Win10 VM about a year ago, I was shocked at how slow it was. I can appreciate the idea, and maybe the performance has improved since, but I can't imagine it's improved enough to make it a useful option in this instance. – phils Feb 13 '19 at 03:27
  • @phils I am currently working using WSL on Windows 10, and it is not that bad. I installed Linux Mint 19 on VirtualBox (VB), but then I decided to take the WSL route.. I dislike using the desktop environment on VM through VB application. So, yeah, If I have time, I can try what you said, which seems lighter. Btw, many sites are recommending WSL instead of using a VM. I guess that is one of it purposes (avoid the burden to run a VM on VB), even though it is not exactly the same thing. – nephewtom Feb 13 '19 at 08:46
  • I've been thinking back to when I was doing this (which was ~10 years ago), and have realised that we were in fact using subversion at the time, and consequently I am just speculating about Git being faster on GNU/Linux even in a Windows-hosted VM. However, I certainly think it's worth trying; and you can forego the X.org side of things for test purposes -- just set up the VM, ssh in, install Git and Emacs, and see how Magit performs in a terminal. If the performance is satisfactory, then carry on and add the GUI side of things. – phils Feb 13 '19 at 10:50
  • Since this is a question about an *alternative to* Magit, it is not a question about Magit, so I remove the `magit` tag. ;-) – tarsius Mar 20 '19 at 00:21
  • AFAIK most git commands base on bash scripts. The starting of the bash process on Windows is much slower than on Linux (Windows is just not made for the toolbox with many small tools but for fewer big applications). Magit relies on many git calls to have all information about the repro. That slows Magit down on Windows. If I remember right there were plans to 1st make Magit faster by lesser bash calls (configurable) and 2nd to make git on windows faster by translating the bash scripts into executables. From that perspective it is worth to keep git and Magit up-to-date. – Tobias Mar 20 '19 at 08:46
  • Also see tickets like: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42888024/git-bash-mintty-is-extremely-slow-on-windows-10-os/47542488. Note, I am using a combination of vc-git and eshell with some customized git commands. – Tobias Mar 20 '19 at 08:46

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