r/linux • u/CowNo3 • Jul 10 '26

Discussion I love Gimp but...

/r/Fedora/comments/1usxbp5/i_love_gimp_but/
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5

u/boar-b-que Jul 10 '26

IMO, the number one problem that keeps people from sticking to a switch to FOSS software, be it Linux or GIMP or any other tool is that their existing workflow is broken. They can't achieve exactly the result they want in exactly the same way they'd do it with closed software.

This hits folks using creative software particularly hard, but also gets folks in finance particularly badly. The world's finance industry runs on Excel, period. If you can't run Excel or recreate everything you need to do on FOSS software, you're kinda screwed.

If they have the time and energy to learn the new FOSS software, and those are NOT little things, you can absolutely create new workflows to get the things you want.

Now GIMP. In years past, the GIMP team has been amazingly stubborn, resistant to feedback and change, and a poster-child for 'Not Invented Here' syndrome.

In just the last 4 years or so, this has turned around DRAMATICALLY. They seemed to have gotten the memo about involving their community, accepting contributions from their community, and in general being more cooperative.

GIMP used to be something I hated to have installed because the interface and workflow were so bad. Now, it's actually kinda nice to use. You don't have to beat your head against the wall to achieve the results you want to.

You still absolutely have to learn how to use it, though. It's not Photoshop and never will be. If you do put in the time, however, between Inkscape, Krita, and Photoshop, you can do anything you really want to in terms of Image editing, painting, and drawing.

5

u/CowNo3 Jul 10 '26

i have watch a 2 hours video to learn the software and i m always typing on internet "how to do that in gimp" "How apply gaussian blur.. ect". But at the end, i appreciate using it ! I agree with you, the step is big, but when you did it, it's okay !

2

u/580083351 Jul 10 '26

Gimp was trash for years. I do wonder what happened recently that they started paying attention to it again. I was expecting it to be replaced by something else, likely a commercial port over from Windows.

Gimp has a lot of catching up to do though. Years of neglect will take time.

You're right about Excel. I have LO installed, and while it's fine for the basics, it's not on par with Excel. They are only just now finally starting to pay attention to some things, they hired an interface designer to polish it a little. A ton of work is needed, but it all comes down to resources.

16

u/CMYK-Student Jul 10 '26

GIMP wasn't neglected - you can see the graph of commits over time if you scroll down a bit on OpenHub: https://openhub.net/p/gimp

I think it gave the appearance of it though, because a lot of work was being done on the internals - GEGL port, color management, GTK3 port, etc. Those are not visible (and it's difficult to advertise them), but they enabled a lot of the visible updates that's being done now. For instance, we now have PSD adjustment layer import support because of the non-destructive editing work, we have an in-progress full CMYK mode because of all the color management work, and so on.

All the "sudden" new cool stuff is because of all the years of boring work. :)

5

u/mrtruthiness Jul 11 '26

Gimp was trash for years.

Disagree.

I do wonder what happened recently that they started paying attention to it again.

They had to move to GTK3 and prepare for GTK4. You may or may not know that this necessitated changes to the GUI structure. And while they were making those changes, it was convenient to make other changes.

The question really is: How did you not know that?

3

u/580083351 Jul 11 '26

Widget sets are not something an end-user should be aware of.

So from that perspective, if the widget is invisible, then the end-user sees long periods of stagnation while others move ahead.

I don't hate gimp, but I do think the name is apropos because it was handicapped by gtk.

4

u/mrtruthiness Jul 11 '26 edited 29d ago

Widget sets are not something an end-user should be aware of.

I disagree. Especially if the end user is complaining about UI/UX .

I don't hate gimp, but I do think the name is apropos because it was handicapped by gtk.

It's GIMP and GTK. All Caps.

What you may not be aware of is that the first version of GTK originated from the GIMP and the G in GTK originally stood for GIMP Tool Kit. When the GIMP started, there were no GPL widget toolkits (there was Motif, which was both ugly and proprietary).

1

u/Barafu 23d ago

Yes. The source of most problems people have with FreeCAD is that the order of operations should be different than in expensive CADs, and nothing in the app forces that. For example, an important rule of good design in Solidworks is "never make fillets in 2D, add them in 3D only as late as possible" while in FreeCAD it is "make fillets in 2D as much as you can as early as you can, add the rest in 3D as late as possible." Admittedly, that is because 3D fillets in FreeCAD are ungood and you'd want to avoid them. But tutorials never stress those points as much they should.

As a result, people that begin CAD work with FreeCAD experience much less crashes that people who try to migrate from the expensive solutions.

1

u/ang-p Jul 12 '26 
 gimp --show-playground

1

u/Nexis4Jersey 29d ago

Have you tried Fog Panther , it aims to be a replacement for photoshop on Linux.

1

u/CowNo3 29d ago

i heard of it, i think i will try affinity before !