Michael Trümmer wrote: > What Digg-Users think about The GIMP: > > http://digg.com/linux_unix/GIMP_is_more_powerful_than_most_people_think_See_complete_tutorials_here > >
You know, it's funny. Discussions about GIMP and it's interface (as compared to PS) so often seem to lead to statements like "GIMP is only bad because you are used to PS, I used GIMP first for x years and when I tried PS I thought it was horrible." I have used GIMP for the past 4 or more years, and have watched it grow and improve; I have used PS only a couple of times at the college I went to in the computer labs, and was unwilling to buy it. I had this personal interest in trying to find open source alternatives for every task I needed to accomplish. Anyway, contrary to the claims that others have made, I did not find photoshop difficult or time-consuming to use. I picked it up in a snap, despite my years of experience with GIMP, and having used paintbrush most of my life b4 that. Perhaps a real graphic artist using complex techniques might have a different story to tell, but in my experience I don't agree. I still like GIMP, and was perfectly willing to try to work with the SDI interface, regardless of my personal preferences, but my experience with GIMP-win has been difficult. Gimpshop does not solve the problem either. There are no settings/plugins in GIMP (to my knowledge) that provide either a reliable MDI interface or a truly usable SDI interface. New settings recently added like "transient windows" have quirks, and "always on top" is not a good alternative either. I understand that developers are saying (I'm sure justifiably) that Windows is the real problem. Be that as it may, on Windows, GIMP does not achieve a truly usable interface. While you may not like Photoshop's use of MDI, you must concede that Photoshop does have a reliable interface that is actually MDI (so do many other graphic programs). GIMP on windows does not get SDI right. When it does, then you can make a better comparison. Somebody will probably tell me that a virtual desktop is the best solution in Windows and that's probably true. No, I can't use Linux right now, and yes, I have tried. I will probably do some experimenting and file a bug report or two describing in detail the quirks that I mentioned. Now these quirks do not (as others would claim) make it impossible to use GIMP, but they can make it irritating at times. I still use GIMP and enjoy it, and prefer it because it is free and always being developed and is does not create files that you can't view without spending money. I am sure GIMP's biggest need is more developers. Being an outsider in that regard, I am not sure why GIMP doesn't seem to have the same level of dedicated developer support as some other projects. In my opinion, GIMP is more exciting and has more potential than most of it's free competitors. I would love to see the open source world gather round and give PS a run for the money. Hopefully soon I will start helping out somehow myself, I am trying to plan for that. Ben W. _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list [email protected] https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
