Comment by filereaper

I'd like to also point out tig. "Tig is an ncurses-based text-mode interface for git"

It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a GUI, but if you need to look at all the branches, and commits to a repository. tig is an excellent tool. tig doesn't issue any commands though, its only a browser, you'll still need to know the CLI. (essentially a ncurses version of gitk)

I'm normally in a ssh session on a remote box where my compile & run cycles happen. tig is curses based, so no X11 needed, filled in a really nice itch of mine.

[1] https://github.com/jonas/tig