diff --git a/components/app/app.js b/components/app/app.js
index acfdb1b04..5552325d0 100644
--- a/components/app/app.js
+++ b/components/app/app.js
@@ -67,10 +67,12 @@ class AppViewModel {
         this.latestVersion(version.latestVersion);
         this.showNewVersionAvailable(!ungit.config.ungitVersionCheckOverride && version.outdated);
       }).catch((e) => this.server.unhandledRejection(e));
-    this.server.getPromise('/gitversion')
-      .then((gitversion) => {
-        if (gitversion && !gitversion.satisfied) {
-          this.gitVersionError(gitversion.error);
+
+    const minGitVersion = '>=1.8.0'
+    this.server.getPromise('/gitversion', {requiredGitVersion: minGitVersion})
+      .then((result) => {
+        if (result && !result.satisfied) {
+          this.gitVersionError(`Ungit requires git ${minGitVersion}, found ${result.type} ${result.version}`);
         }
       }).catch((e) => this.server.unhandledRejection(e));
   }
diff --git a/source/server.js b/source/server.js
index 5553e4971..9a15dbeb2 100644
--- a/source/server.js
+++ b/source/server.js
@@ -301,7 +301,13 @@ app.get('/api/latestversion', (req, res) => {
 app.get('/api/ping', (req, res) => res.json({}));
 
 app.get('/api/gitversion', (req, res) => {
-  sysinfo.getGitVersionInfo().then((result) => res.json(result));
+  sysinfo.getGitVersionInfo().then((result) => {
+    res.json({
+      satisfied: semver.satisfies(result, req.query.requiredGitVersion),
+      version: result,
+      type: 'git'
+    })
+  });
 });
 
 const userConfigPath = path.join(config.homedir, '.ungitrc');
diff --git a/source/sysinfo.js b/source/sysinfo.js
index 6723c447c..fd63a1702 100644
--- a/source/sysinfo.js
+++ b/source/sysinfo.js
@@ -45,21 +45,5 @@ exports.getUserHash = () => {
 }
 
 exports.getGitVersionInfo = () => {
-  const result = {
-    requiredVersion: '>=1.8.x',
-    version: 'unkown',
-    satisfied: false
-  };
-
-  if (!config.gitVersion) {
-    result.error = `Failed to parse git version number. Note that Ungit requires git version ${result.requiredVersion}`;
-  } else {
-    result.version = config.gitVersion;
-    result.satisfied = semver.satisfies(result.version, result.requiredVersion);
-    if (!result.satisfied) {
-      result.error = `Ungit requires git version ${result.requiredVersion}, you are currently running ${result.version}`;
-    }
-  }
-
-  return Bluebird.resolve(result);
+  return Bluebird.resolve(config.gitVersion);
 }
diff --git a/test/spec.sysinfo.js b/test/spec.sysinfo.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b66fb6749
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/spec.sysinfo.js
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+const expect = require('expect.js');
+const sysinfo = require('../src/sysinfo');
+
+describe('sysinfo', () => {
+  it('returns the gitversion', () => {
+    sysinfo.getGitVersionInfo().then((version) => expect(version).to.match(/\d+\.\d+\.\d+/))
+  });
+});