Please right-click the line you want to stage. There you can find the requested options.

Next 8.1 preview build will color the merge commits gray and allows to configure this color.

You can set the commit message limit by adding and modifying the following line to smartgit.properties:

smartgit.log.commitMessage.shortLimit=100

"icons text in the toolbar are black" - that's what I meant with "the API does not allow to change all colors". Please also take a look at dialogs, e.g. the preferences - they look worse.

What is CL? Regarding squashing commit: select the commits to squash in the Journal and select Squash from the context menu, enter a message. IMHO, this can't be made simpler.

So Linux kills the application instead of ending it when you reboot/shutdown without having closed all applications? Wouldn't it be better to solve the problem of not having sent the correct signal to SmartGit or SmartGit not responding correctly to the sent signal, than just working around by trying to fix a symptom?

Is anybody using an LFS provider other than GitHub?

We've decided for 2 separate windows because it is possible to arrange them the way you like (assuming a large enough screen). For my last conflicts it has proven to improve the situation fairly well.