03.01
I often get Linux advocates trying to convert me to use it instead of Windows. It’s free they say, it’s actually better than Windows they say. As explained earlier, there is a certain trend among promoters of FOSS to be creative with the truth, and who reality warps around to fit their worldview. Included in this list is the insistance that Gimp is not only on par with Photoshop, but is actually superior.
Of course this isn’t true, and to be perfectly honest Gimp is one of the worst pieces of software I have ever had the misfortune to use. It’s clunky, badly thought out and, considering the excessive complexity, surprisingly lacking in useful features.
Of course it’s perfectly fine for someone to be of the opinion that it’s better than Photoshop. But it is also possible for someone to be of the opinion that MS-DOS is better than Bash, that Basic is better than C and that Windows ME was a good OS. People’s opinions just happen to be wrong a lot of the time. You have to ask yourself this – If Gimp was commercial and Photoshop was FOSS, would the Gimp supporters still be using it?
So why does it suck?
1: Layer size vs Canvas size.
The biggest wtf is the strange fact you can have a smaller layer size than canvas size. Try this: Create a new document (400×400), then go Image->Canvas size (500×500). Now for some reason you cannot actually paint outside the original 400×400 area. You need to then increase the layer size before you can use it. The more recent version of Gimp lets you automatically set all layers to the canvas size when you increase it – remember an older version where you had to do it one by one – but the question still stands: why on earth do I have to do this in the first place?
The only possible utility for this ‘feature’ I can think of is to limit the drawing area when painting, but since there are at least half a dozen other ways of doing this that do not require constant attention, and also let you create a boundry area that isn’t a rectangle, that can’t be it. I suppose there may be a technical reason for it, but I’ve yet to see a single other graphics program require this so that can’t be it either. It’s annoying micromanagement for the sake of annoying micromanagement, it serves no purpose, yet it is a major feature of the program.
2: Layer groups
Imagine a non-heirarchical file system. That is you can only store files in / and nowhere else. It would be a nightmare, wouldn’t it? That’s what Gimp is like. In Photoshop you can create groups that layers can be placed in. If you create a button made out of half a dozen layers you put them in a group called ‘button’, and can treat all layers like one – moving them, hiding them etc. Want another button – just copy the group, change the title layer and you’re done. Doing any of the above with Gimp takes an order of magnitude more time in finding and copying the mass of unsorted layers. Fun.
3: Non-destructive effects & layers
Possibly the biggest feature missing from Gimp is non-destructive effects. For example if I want to add a drop shadow to something in Photoshop you just click the effects button and select ‘drop shadow’. Any future changes to the layer automatically update the effect, with the added bonus that it is on the layer itself, and does not require a new layer for the effect. To achieve the same action in Gimp you’d need to go the throught the bother of copying your original layer, filling it with black, offsetting it and then blurring it. Any change to the layer or if you want to tweak the effect require redoing the whole lot, rather than just changing the settings or layer. The same also applies to the other effects such as strokes, glows, bevels, gradients etc. What takes seconds in Photoshop can take hours to achieve in Gimp.
4: User interface
It is widely accepted that Gimp has one of the worst user interfaces in known history. It has got a little better recently, that is the ergegiously bad UI problems have been tamed, but while each revision of Photoshop has seen gradual improvements and refinements to the UI, Gimp has pretty much stayed static.
5: Last but not least – the name
Even if it didn’t have a complete lack of features people still wouldn’t use it simply because of the name. I could create the best, easiest to use distro, but if I called it Penix virtually nobody would use it. Sure it’s funny, but it’s horribly unprofessional and having a name that most people would be embarassed to say to a client is certainly not going to help your cause!
Now, I admit that I am being a bit harsh – and that if you had not had experience with Photoshop – then there would be nothing significantly wrong with Gimp. However when comparing the two Gimp simply cannot compete with Photoshop on a professional level and the points I have made are just the tip of the iceberg. If I felt it was necessary I could fairly easily write up at least a dozen more points (such as type handling, exporting, colour management, actions, plugins, workflow etc etc etc).
Sure, having a graphics package that could only really referred to as a, at best, toy is fine – but stop trying to pretend it has even the slightest glimmer of a chance at being considered pro app simply because it’s FOSS as it isn’t. The first version of Photshop I remember using was 5.0, and it still has more features and is better than Gimp and it was released over a decade ago, leaving Gimp as, at least, ten years behind the competition.
Again, the complete and utter failure of the FOSS community to rate software on it’s merits (as opposed to its release license) is at fault here. It seems to me the free software community is far more interested in pushing a bizarre software ideology rather than concentrating on making good software. And it really shows.
This is the single greatest article I have ever read.
YES YES YES. Ten minutes ago, I was happily starting gimp, thought I could quickly create an image still for a movie. Now, I’m frothing at the mouth and mighty glad I found somewhere to vent my frustration. The gimp’s UI is so bad, you can’t ever rely on intuition with it. I mean, if I can make a rectangle around something, then I expect that “Cut” will delete that something and put it into buffer. And if my action doesn’t make sense at that moment, then I expect that “Cut” menuitem to be inaccessible, to prevent me from something stupid. Everything else is pre-1980′s software engineering where people were glad it didn’t crash. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to say it. RWS
Quote: “I could create the best, easiest to use distro, but if I called it Penix virtually nobody would use it.”
ROFLMFAO!!!!
All FOSS sucks. I don’t even understand how these delusional FOSStards are able to live pretending to like horrible stuff. They must be really miserable!
Or they just don’t want to pay for crap…
You could say a lot about Adobe and how they rip us off, especially Mac users who don’t have 64 bit support, 100% cocoa code nor multithreading optim… ( and no CoreImage support, while plug-in makers prove Adobe wrong considering the fact previews are 10 times faster with CI support… KUDOS ADOBE )
Sure people are glad to pay a lot to a company which outsource their pro Products to an incredible amount of indian developers ( some say 1000+ ) but in the end, they just pay for shit.
At least, you can’t say GIMP ( which has significant drawbacks ) is like Photoshop on this particular point.
Well, in my opinion, the software world will be a better place once Adobe is dead. Think Flash and you’ll see how this company is laughable ( hooo wait I don’t know how to optimize my technology, let’s ask Nvidia to do it for me… ) Brilliant.
What about flash? The world would be better without all those videos and interactive applications on the web, that’s for sure. To say nothing about PDF, damn Adobe, i would rather simply send my .docx and .pptx around and not those platform-independent files. An example of the freetard logic at work.
@trickyDick:
Well, flash video can be quite killed with the tag, so Youtube is not gonna collapse because of that.
I really, REALLY wanted to believe that I was not losing anything with the Gimp, just “another way of work”. But thank God I can vent here and say, that Gimp is really awful.
Photoshop and photoshop-inspired webapps are the best thing ever for design!
Wine dev team, thank you and keep up the good work.
btw, this article is AWESOME. I’ve reading here for 2 days; amazing and so tough-but-damn-true ideas. I use Ubuntu at home, but you’re definitely right at almost everything! Hope some FOSS big fish could read and ‘force’ the community to consider it(a la Eric Raymond)
Interesting, too many “AWESOME article” praises for each article
Is that the reality?
having spent hours trying to get gimp to run from macports and ending up totally clueless – there seems to be no one definitive way that it works and instructions had no relationship whatever to what happened on my Mac – I just gave up. Then I just ran it directly in OS X so at least (I mean shit there are thousands of “ports” and no command I could find that actually opened them or did anything-and mirrors and bugs and fixes and if everything ran that way who’s put up with it?-I’m so irritated I can hardly keep a coherent thought) gimp was running – but then I clicked and tried stuff and nothing seemed to happen. I was intimidated by Photoshop but at least with that I can experiment, trial and error, or there’s actually something that says if you select this this will happen and goddamn it does-not so in gimp where well enough of my crap-the number of hours spend on anything that I’ve wasted on this-I’d rather edit photos with Sharpie markers-all right sorry.
But at least I’m not the only one that’s aggravated. That means a tremendous amount to me. And photo editing is so fun-gimp sure as hell fixed that. There are just millions of pages of shit about it and ok I can’t stop . . . thanks. I’m gonna go to my psychiatrist now-he’ll give me something to forget I ever heard of gimp. (PS I’m not a genius but I have figured out software before so it’s not as if my incompetence explains everything).
Believe it or not I have better things to do than astroturf my own blog with praise – I don’t even really care who reads it, it’s just cathartic ranting about this after dealing with it constantly.
Pixlr.com is actually more useful than the GiMP and I can’t stand either.
I love Ubuntu 9 to pieces, but the GiMP’s gotta go.
Whenever I am on the photoshop forums on flickr and ANYONE posts a question (or complaint) about PhotoShop, it never fails that some GIMP-pusher will chime in about how awesome and free GIMP is.
GIMP BLOWS.
It’s dog slow, feature poor, and just all around bad. Okay, yeah it’s free, but I can buy old versions of photoshop on eBay for a pittance. The guy with CS4 is hot to sell is PShop 5 or PShop 6 license for $20 to $60… and PShop 6 beats GIMP hands down. $60? SOLD!
I admire the GIMP folks, and I admire what they are trying to do. But please. STOP WITH THE HYPE. It’s a free alternative to PhotoShop that is NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD. Be HONEST.
GIMP does suck. It’s so refreshing to hear that instead of the hype.
the biggset thing missing from this article is gimp has a complete lack of cmyk support, which instantly rules it out for any kind of professional use
Another thing that’s bad is the documentation. Most of what I’ve found are poorly-written “tutorials” that leave out important information and assume you know the answer already. Yeah, that helps.
That’s barely scratching the surface! That’s not even 5% of the crippling issues it has.
With Photoshop CS4, I also get bridge and Camera RAW, and great integration with all other Adobe apps. I get invaluable color spaces like Lab (couldn’t live without it) and Adobe RGB — all along with GREAT adjustment tools e.g. not the hard-clipping RGB brightness/contrast POS the gimp’ed up editor has. Top notch CMYK support. Pantone color matching (in several color spaces too). Non-destructive editing/adjustment layers. A kick-ass interface, with separate workspaces for different tasks. Keyboard shortcuts that are set exactly how everyone expects them to be out of the box. Works with my existing presets. Great tools for everything. Advanced 3D tools. Pano stitching tools. DOF combining tools. HDR tools. GPU acceleration (including Birds’ eye view and such features). Content aware scaling. Smart objects….
The list goes on and on and on. Even including the few things I mentioned, we’re STILL barely scratching the surface! The GIMP doesn’t even have 5% of the functionality of a copy of Photoshop that’s several versions out of date.
That’s besides all the amazing books, training from adobe/kelby online/lynda/vtc/total training and several others, the ACE certifications, the countless online tutorial sites, the Photoshop Exchange online resource, etc.
Just a few more I hadn’t mentioned before going to bed last nite:
smart filters, the canvas rotation (just press r) which doesn’t rotate the image itself, just you view (invaluable for painting anything), auto-aligning of layers, 16 bit printing, 64 bit support for very large images, adjustment and mask panels, being able to unclutter the interface and bring everything back in 1 keystroke (tab), CS3′s *greatly* improved brightness/contrast adjustments, quick selection & refine edge, the liquify filter, the clone source palette, very good typography tools, being able to use the said typography tools onto a shape or path, vanishing point, smart sharpen, lens correction, good support for wacom tablets with great pens, etc.
We’re STILL barely scratching the surface. The GIMP very, very badly loses to Photoshop 4, a 12 year old app. It barely competes with the Win 3.1-era Photoshop 2.5, a 1993 vintage.
Also, CS5 should be out in a year or so, widening the gap much further. The GIMP keeps falling into irrelevancy more and more with every release.
I’m not even sure they’ll ever (mostly) catch up with Photoshop 4, by adding adjustment layers, which so far don’t even seem to be planned. They’d also have to ditch GTK and create a brand new, sane interface for it too to be a real equivalent. Long story short, I don’t see them catching up with 1996 in the next 10+ years. As for matching the standard tools we use everyday that are in CS4, I don’t see that happening in my lifetime, and I have another good while to go.
Don’t forget about layer comps. And support for Wacom tablets: not only pen pressure but also pen tilt.
The GIMP is the biggest software epic FAIL I’ve ever seen.
And by the way, the adobe configurator lets you create your own customized photoshop interface (custom panels, tool palettes, menus, etc) quickly & easily, for each particular workspace. You can share them as well, like many people are doing.
I can do more with this in a few minutes (in terms of fine tuning the interface for specific tasks) than I could do with the GIMP source code in 10 years. It’s actually usable by your average graphic artist, not hardcore C++ neckbeards who know nothing about design or graphics.
How many of you all actually paid for Photoshop?
The help and documentation is fantastic may I add. See for yourself:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/WS3431573C-0AAA-414b-9EEE-253C503C1E2F.html
“How many of you all actually paid for Photoshop?”
I sure did. $200 for the CS4 upgrade. It pays for itself in less than a day’s work. That’s *really* cheap as far as high-end tools goes for *any* job.
Almost like *everyone* uses Photoshop, and somehow still Adobe has having financial problems. I am if they sold so many copies of Photoshop, I think they’d making the big bucks. But then you realize Creative Suite is one of the most pirated software products in the history of software.
“somehow still Adobe has having financial problems”
You might have noticed, but the economy isn’t doing too well right now, and most companies are having lower than expected revenue/sales/profits.
And as far as Photoshop being pirated, that only cuts in Photoshop Elements’ sales if anything. 99% of the people that pirate it don’t know shit about Photoshop (I’ve seen some who had no clue how to even crop a picture…)
And Adobe != Photoshop. Photoshop sells quite well, but there’s stuff that no one wants of that they should drop, like ColdFusion and other shite.
Also, there’s a LOT of competition out there. MS Office 2007, OOo and Mac stuff all generate PDFs out of the box. There are freeware that does this, and many commercial offerings under $50. The market for $450 Acrobat Pro isn’t really big anymore. Just like Flash is seeing competition from Silverlight, and in the future Google’s acquisition of On2 (video codec).
In fact, Photoshop is probably their only product that’s doing so well (there’s essentially no competition). Hard to blame it for all the others though.
WOW! Not to my surprise, but look at all the Mac and Adobe fanboys! Stirling up some more FUD.
You do know, that the more control you have over your image editor, the better the result? And you don’t end up with a standard looking Photoshop image, like “Oh, so you just added some drop-shadow, inverted it, added some clouds, blurred it, rotated it, and applied a glass effect.” You know there is a reason people call fake images “Photoshoped” because most users of Photoshop just use the nice little effects that are there for them, instead of actually KNOWING full-well what they did, step, by step.
GIMP is superior because you actually use it.
“It seems to me the free software community is far more interested in pushing a bizarre software ideology rather than concentrating on making good software.”
Why is this? Because I actually want to buy my software, and not just a license. Or in many cases download software legally.
@ Jake
FUD is starting to lose its punch as a term. It’s being overused and misused. It means “Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt”. Please remember that. It does not include contrary opinions, constructive criticism, fair comparisons or objective facts, however inconvenient.
“You do know, that the more control you have over your image editor, the better the result?”
The more features your editor has, the ease with which they can be used, and the competence and knowledge of the user define the results, not some nebulous “full control”
“You know there is a reason people call fake images “Photoshoped” because most users of Photoshop just use the nice little effects that are there for them”
Utter horseshit. People say “Photoshopped” for the same reasons they say “Googled”, “Xeroxed” or “Hoovered”. The brand has become synonymous with the task.
People probably also say “Photoshopped” to refer to images altered in GIMP. Do you want the menaing of a “Gimped” image to be nearer the truth and to mean the image is primitive, lacks polish and can’t be printed satisfactorily with a four colour process??
“GIMP is superior because you actually use it”
GIMP is “superior” only to those who don’t need most of Photoshop’s features (and for those I’d recommend Paint Shop or Paint.NET instead of GIMP) and those for whom “Free” (on Stallman’s terms) automatically means better, regardless of objective quality.
No. You, you are fearful that you are using the wrong software, because Adobe’d never made a bad product, it can’t be true /s
You are uncertain of the “facts” you are discussing, and you are ill-educated about them.
And you doubt that the fast people tell you are actually true, whether you just can’t comprehend them, or it choose to deny them, as to be bias.
Adobe is pushing out a lot of lies, and Photoshop users are too stupid to distinguish between lies and fast, much like republicans.
Exactly, the “competence and knowledge of the user” and with the “ease of use” of the “features” this is lost.
Photoshop users make more mistakes than any other graphics design artists.
There are ways you can print and design at higher bit depths, profiles, proofing, there is a GIMP-based program called CinePaint, used for frame by frame video editing, it was used on such movies as Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Last Samurai and Stuart Little.
I don’t think you even know Richard Stallman’s true terminology for “Free” and his preferred usage for it.
FACTS, I mean facts.
Couldn’t agree more with this article. My work place is using all Ubuntu (it’s adequate for most things) for the desktops and I have to say I waste more time trying to things that should be easy with GIMP. A procedure as simple as reducing the canvas size of an image from the top right is an exercise in frustration. I keep my personal Windows laptop at my side here at work so I can use Photoshop when GIMP utterly fails me (sadly more often than not). But I’m still trying.
The GiMP is FREE.
Photoshop is $600+.
Honestly, you can’t expect it to be /perfect/. Come on.
I use the GiMP ON WINDOWS. I don’t even run Linux. Seriously, give it a rest. If you take the time to get to know and learn it (I’m reading through several comments here about people who have just gotten started and ‘already’ hate it), it’s a very powerful tool, admittedly not as powerful as PS, but again, look at the prices, please. My friends use PS for their artwork; I use GiMP and I get asked how much I bought PS for.
By the way, I do use the term GiMPed. Not because it’s necessarily better, or because it’s free, but because it’s GiMP, not Photoshop.
“GIMP is superior because you actually use it.”
LOL. You’re such a clueless idiot. You have to be a guru at a shitty app to do trivial stuff, so that makes it better? Right. Nevermind it *CAN’T* do basic shit we’ve been doing for 12+ years e.g. non-destructive editing, using adjustment layers. There is NO way to do anything non-trivial in that gimp’ed up app, no matter how good you are. It’s just too damn crippled.
The only thing you proved is your ignorance.
As for the price, again, it pays for itself very quickly, and there are LOADS of FAR better options than the GIMP for very cheap. Really shitty software for free might compete against “amazing, featureful, excellent but somewhat expensive” if you basically have no needs, but it still doesn’t compete with the “quite good, easy to use and dirt cheap” like Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements and many others.
* > GIMP
@ Jake
I try to make a reasoned point about the overuse and misuse of a term, and you give me a dose of hyperbole, unfounded assertions and unwarranted assumptions. You also descend to personal attacks.
I thought it was just us “Freedom haters” who only attacked the messenger and not the message?
As you seem to have misunderstood me, I’ll re-iterate my point, and I’ll break it down for you;
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
Fair comparisons are not FUD
Criticism is not FUD
An opinion is not FUD
Facts are not FUD
The truth is NEVER FUD
Get it?
“Exactly, the “competence and knowledge of the user” and with the “ease of use” of the “features” this is lost.”
Are you really trying to say that using an easy-to-use tool makes the user incompetent??
“Photoshop users make more mistakes than any other graphics design artists.”
This makes no attempt to refute the point I made, which was to point out your horseshit about usage of the term “Photoshopped”. It’s also more than likely completely untrue, and to cap it all off, it’s a crass and insulting generalisation of Photoshop users.
“there is a GIMP-based program called CinePaint”
Cinepaint may or may not a very good product, but we’re not discussing CinePaint. CinePaint is a _fork_ of GIMP – Cinepaint is _NOT_ GIMP. Why did you even bother to bring it up?
“I don’t think you even know Richard Stallman’s true terminology for “Free” and his preferred usage for it.”
I probably don’t, and furthermore I don’t give a toss what Stallman’s definition of “free” happens to be at this point. Of what relevance are Stallman’s socio-political beliefs to an objective comparison of the ease-of-use and feature sets of bitmap image editors? You’re proving my point for me – for FOSS zealots, the license is more important than the quality of the software or the needs of the user.
You know you haven’t once said what’s BETTER about GIMP? You’ve given no reasons WHY it’s superior to Photoshop, you’ve just asserted that it’s “superior” because people use it.
This is something that really pisses me off about FOSS extremism – there’s never any fair comparison, and the actual technical merits of FOSS are rarely given. All the FSF and its supporters do is nitpick, insult, defame, and smear the opposition.
Imagine that Avis hadn’t run their “We’re #2, but we try harder” campaign, but had gone with “Fuck Hertz! They’re evil assholes!”. That’s what FOSS advocacy is like.
An old but good & related post from a previous LH entry:
I do consulting for a bunch of photographers. What does Linux offer them?
Saving on a $100 OS upgrade every 5+ years? Big deal.
Meanwhile, Linux has nothing that comes even close to Photoshop — productivity down 95% right there, and basic features that are a decade old, like non-destructive editing with GIMP are simply impossible (feature isn’t there, and it’s not even in planning stage).
Linux has nothing that comes even close to Bridge to manage digital assets like photos (you have NO idea how much stuff they have to organize). Another GIGANTIC waste of time.
Linux has nothing that comes even close to Camera Adobe RAW, nor any of the others such as Capture ONE. More suck.
Linux doesn’t work with their high end DSLRs tethered to a computer in a studio.
Linux doesn’t work with 99% of their equipment in shop, from large format printers, to dye-sub printers, to film scanners, to networked photocopier on the office side.
Linux has nothing to offers that would sound like a half-way sane “digital workflow”.
Linux doesn’t have any RIP software (for large printers).
Linux doesn’t have decent color management, much less with calibration tools like a Spyder 3 and everything else they need.
Linux has no studio management software either (check piesoftware.com or studioplussoftware.com for an example of everything those do; or other tools like timeexposure.com). Just can’t live without those things.
Linux doesn’t cater to every other little thing they need, like font management (e.g. suitcase) — nor good fonts for that matter, vector graphics and what not. Doesn’t offer anything to manage their finances either (no, GNUcash isn’t the answer).
Seriously, it’s *completely* useless for practically everything they do.
“Photoshop is $600+”
The CS4 upgrade is $200. You’ll easily get 2 years of use out of it, so it works out to $8/month for something that will let you charge several times that per hour if you have any skills.
http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/2390/photoshop25.png
So true.
What do you mean by “non-destructive editing” do you mean _real_ non-destructive editing, or just stupid shit like “adjustment layers”?
True non-destructive editing, which is in the works for GIMP, is much like non-destructive audio editing. Like make the image smaller, rotate it, rescale it back to it’s normal size, and rotate it back to it’s normal rotation, and have the image look exactly as it did when you stated.
Or do you mean editing RAW image data, which you can do in GIMP as well, be it through a plugin, or just loading it as a lossless image format.
“or just stupid shit like “adjustment layers”?”
One of the stock Linux excuses. If it’s not in FOSS, it’s unnecessary, stupid, or shit. Once it’s in, it’s the best thing EVAR.
“True non-destructive editing, which is in the works for GIMP, is much like non-destructive audio editing. Like make the image smaller, rotate it, rescale it back to it’s normal size, and rotate it back to it’s normal rotation, and have the image look exactly as it did when you stated.”
‘In the works for Gimp’ – So you can’t do it in Gimp, is basically what you are saying?
Also the above has been present in PS for years.
No, no, no.
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Any or all.
Fair comparisons are not FUD — Only if they’re _fair_ and factual, and you are completely _certain_ about them.
Criticism is not FUD — Only if you do not _doubt_ the criticism, and facts you present, which you presented none, uncertainty.
An opinion is not FUD — Only if that opinion is not based on _uncertainty_, fear, or doubt.
Facts are not FUD — Only if the “facts” are factual. Which, again, you prepented none, uncertainty.
The truth is NEVER FUD — Only if the “truth” presents facts. And with your attitude towards GIMP, you probably never sought to learn what GIMP’s full potential is.
Get it?
Yes. Because you don’t have full control. The easier it becomes, the less control you have over it, that’s kind of the point. Less effort.
Yes. Freedom comes first. But once freedom is established, the quality of the software is the only thing left to worry about, and with Photoshop users like you always poking at GIMP and the freedoms we try to establish, we have a harder time establishing them.
As I say, GIMP is extensible, it comes bare-bone. But can do everything Photoshop can, just in a different way. But Photoshop users can’t stand to do things a different way than Adobe wants them to, which shows the lock Adobe has already established on your freedom.
The superiority comes from being just as able as Photoshop, while preserving and granting the freedom of the user.
No. We present facts, and you sit back and deny. We show the technical merits of the software, while showing the restrictiveness of the proprietary software. The technical merits we present are just that, technical, perhaps too technical for most people, which is a sad state of our society.
Okay. You guys are just too stupid to even talk with.
“Yes. Because you don’t have full control. The easier it becomes, the less control you have over it, that’s kind of the point. Less effort.”
You drew the picture before, now you’re just colouring it in. By your logic, if there was a “free” car, we’d have to pedal it to make it go and take it apart and reassemble it to get it around corners.
Less effort involved in a task is a _good_ thing. The computer is supposed to make things easier for users. It’s a tool, it’s not a political platform and it’s not a religion.
For the vast majority, the license simply does not matter. Getting the job done matters.
“Okay. You guys are just too stupid to even talk with.”
And you’re too inured in the FSF cult to attempt to reason with.
LOL. That JakeDTH is such a fucking moron.
Yeah, the GIMP might eventually one day have better non-destructive editing than Photoshop v4 had 12 years ago (it’s only 10 years out too!). Yawn.
“editing RAW image data, which you can do in GIMP as well, be it through a plugin”
Which plugins (e.g. ufraw/ucraw/dcraw/…) suck balls all-around and have poor camera support. Oh yeah, just wait 10 years and it’ll finally be usable! It’s evident you’ve never used or even seen ACR in action.
“Yes. Because you don’t have full control. The easier it becomes, the less control you have over it, that’s kind of the point. Less effort.”
Except you do have a fuckton more control, options, ways to do things and what not with PS. You’re just too stupid to know anything besides that GIMP’ed up editor. And yes, computers should make your life harder (i.e. your tools work against you, willingly made harder to use), because if it only helped you do your job quicker or easier, than it makes you an incompetent moron. Wow, that explains a lot.
“Yes. Freedom comes first.”
Yes, who cares if it can do the job at all, or lets you accomplish it in a sane way, or in a reasonable time frame? All that is irrelevant to you as you’re 12 and dicking around in your mom’s basement while we have jobs to do.
Carpenters don’t care if their drill is open source either, all that matters is if it’s a good, reliable tool that lets him do a good job in a timely fashion.
“But can do everything Photoshop can, just in a different way.”
You’re only showing your absolute, complete and incredible ignorance towards what Photoshop is and can do (including its most basic features). This statement is *at least* 100% false. You’re really clueless and this is all WAY over your head. You’re only embarrassing yourself further with every post. And you somehow think we’re the stupid ones. Yes Mr Gump, *you* are the smart one here! Everyone else is wrong, of course.
“Like make the image smaller, rotate it, rescale it back to it’s normal size, and rotate it back to it’s normal rotation, and have the image look exactly as it did when you stated.”
Much like we’ve had for a while using smart objects? Or the non-destructive cloning in camera raw? Or how we use smart filters? Or how we have adjustment layers?
Freetards. Imitating others poorly, years late.
Or is it that we should be using the most absolutely retarded piece of trash software, just because it promises to have great things in a distant future? And then wait for it to have a decent interface? And good tools? And every other feature we *need*?
VaporWareIsBetter(TM), even when what we have now is the absolute very worst tool out there by FAR.
It’s called GIMP because making images in GIMP is like walking up the stairs in a wheelchair
It is a really, really bad example of free software. There’s some good stuff about that’s open source but GIMP is terrible. It’s a prime example of developers developing software and not caring about usability (or having their own, incorrect, usability theories rather than using tried and tested examples etc).
Man I hate the GIMP. Everything about it is painful. Layers are so unintuitive, cropping sucks, the eye dropper doesn’t work properly, zoom is – and shift +. You compare this to photoshop. It is fine tuned. layers work the want they should, zoom is easy, cropping is customizable and shrink the image accordingly. I could go on and on. Every thing I want to do in gimp is like pulling teeth.
Yes, Gimp sucks. If you have a photoshop file with text in it, and you open it with gimp, it rasterizes all of the layers.
I looked for 10 minutes, there’s no POINTER tool. Yep, I’m an idiot, but I should be able to find the pointer tool in under 30 seconds….
Just tried this program because I couldn’t find my photoshop install discs.
Suffice to say, I wasted my time.
is a useless piece of shit that’s not only featureless, but not even user friendly in the slightest. I expected a better version of MS Paint, unfortunately, all I got was 3 windows of bullshit clumped around on my desktop. Its pathetic they even have the nerve to use their own file extensions – fucking idiots. I’ll burn a disc of this software, just to snap it in half and spit on it a few times.
Gimp is horrific! I really hate it, and you’re right, there’s no good tutorials, it is NOT user friendly IN THE LEAST…. i have no idea why it was even created, it does nothing but colorize photos. You can’t blend or do anything with it. Paint is actually better because you can actually type words on the photos and add multiples without messing up the software. Gimp fails at life.
-GIMP is superior because you actually use it-
Wow, so if I had a crap guitar instead of a great one I’d actually be playing it? Whereas…
The whole point is that in Photoshop you are limited only by your creative ability and your imagination. You can go as deep as you want. People can be good or bad at using Photoshop and they can suck or be excellent at playing the guitar; there are reasons why professionals use the best, they want great results and they want them quickly. Only masochists enjoy struggling with a program which is supposed to make your life easier.
GIMP is FREE shit.
OMG… shit under my shoes…
oh dear… it’s free… cool!
For my various “articles” on GIMP, have a few clicks here:
http://naturalbornchiller.instinctive.de/kommentare/technik/gimp/
http://naturalbornchiller.instinctive.de/kommentare/technik/the_gimp_in_a_production_environment/
http://naturalbornchiller.instinctive.de/kommentare/technik/gimp_2.6_-_first_impressions/
Thank you for this. I’m the biggest Linux advocate and I must say that GIMP is the biggest and most consistent pile of shit I have ever used. I’ve been using it for years and it has never ever been a good piece of software.
The UI, as you mentioned, is its most absolutely God-awful fucked up pile of shit I’ve ever bore witness to. Trying to use GIMP is like trying to masturbate with a cheese grater. Slightly amusing, but mostly painful.
In other words you’re not smart enough to learn how to use a new program so it sucks. Got it.
“In other words you’re not smart enough to learn how to use a new program so it sucks. Got it.”
You cannot use a foam mallet to drill a hole no matter how much you ‘learn’ it. Gimp is lacking large swathes of essential functionality to make it useless for anyone beyond a newbie – who would be better off with something easier.
In other words you’re not smart enough to learn how to use a new program so it sucks. Got it.
Umm…Patrick…it sucks. Now go get yourself a real name.
Yeah, by the way…good going. I just happened to be “learning” GIMP (and yes, I’ve always had issues with the name…or whatever that is…designation), because I do not like giving money to assholes like corporations. But after a few days of masturbating with a monkey wrench I decided to go back to the sensible way of doing things in Pshop. I do however have a theory that all shitty OSS stuff is somehow “supported” by the corps too.
It’s not a theory.
http://www.jfplayhouse.com/2010/01/proprietary-profits-fund-open-source.html
Geez. I received a picture, with a logo on the top, and I tried to move the logo a bit down, to see if it’s better. I use Ubuntu 9.10 (being a Windows convert
), and GIMP is already installed (man, you just ruined my day 
every time I say “GIMP”, that “Penix” flashes in).
So I loaded the picture, draw a rectangle, and… wtf should I do next. Selecting the Move tool didn’t help, options in the “Selection” part are greyed out. Ok, fire up Firefox, enter Google, and “gimp how to move selection with content”. Opps, no I have a better idea: “GIMP sucks”, and I’m here.
I started with PS 2.5, and worked in the industry until PS 7. I remember I wasn’t so clueless in PS 2.5 than in GIMP.
That simple task above made me Googleing around instead of GIMP serving me the right way. GIMP sucks big time, but the question is: why?
Remember the Kasparov vs. the world chess game? Kasparov won because he was superior. And no matter how many average Joe PLUS a few genius you throw at him, if you insert a plurality vote in the system, the system will be stable, but only average, there is no way such a system could excel in anything.
So in short, a very successful system/product/anything needs a dictator. Somebody with the ultimate vote, what should happen next, where the rest of the team should go, what the strategy will be. If this dictator is average, the product will fail. Darwin won.
Anybody saying that GIMP is superior, should create list of features, that are really superior in PS.
I mean inferior in PS, of course.
You know what might be handy?
Maybe not aiming insults and complaints vaguely at the internet?
If you have a problem with The GIMP, then that’s a perfect excuse to get in touch with the developers and offer some sound advice, apparently you’re a professional graphics designer (or at least skilled), that means you’re the target audience.
The GIMP was designed as a FOSS substitute for a professional graphics design program, so far I think they’ve done fairly well, seeing as how they had to write out from scratch all the graphical operations that you guys take for granted, and wrap it up in a traditional mouse operated UI.
The people who design and program The GIMP are obviously not Graphics Designers, it’s for YOUR benefit that they’re taking time out from their lives to give YOU a free alternative, that runs on many platforms, and isn’t restricted by any licenses.
It seems you don’t understand the basic principles of community based software design, it’s the best interests of the community that make their way into the final product, and if you can’t be bothered putting a little work in, and would rather just call other people’s hard work crap, then just leave them alone, you don’t have any authority to do that.
“If you have a problem with The GIMP, then that’s a perfect excuse to get in touch with the developers and offer some sound advice”
Ever tried that? You just get flamed for being a clueless idiot newbie who doesn’t ‘understand’ the superiority of GIMP and the Photoshop workflow is just too ingrained to appreciate it.
Do you not think someone in the last ten years or so might have thought of contributing ideas? The problem is that unless you code it yourself you’re not going to get it and the majority of people who use graphics apps are not coders. And why spend months trying to hack in a feature when you can just pay for PS?
I felt like a total douche the moment I posted that, I’m not normally one to rant, and I didn’t even understand what the blog was about, and now that I do I feel even worse.
Generally my usual form of apology is to create a game for people.
Though the one for the last guy I ticked off is still in pre-Alpha.
Why complain about something THAT’S FREE? I NEVER GOT IT, AND NEVER WILL.
People complain because it’s crap. People complain because they keep getting told it’s better than the industry standard, they try it out, and find out it’s confusing, time-consuming, and with features that were available in Photoshop over a decade ago missing.
“GIMP is free” – the cost of Photoshop is a drop in the ocean if you’re doing paid work with it. The earnings from time not spent learning GIMP and then having to work around its deficiencies would pay for Photoshop. And Illustator. And InDesign. And get the new versions the next year. And the year after.
“GIMP is Free Software” – who cares, apart from programmers? Stallman’s much vaunted “Four Freedoms” mean absolutely jack shit to 99.999% of the world’s population.
“GIMP is Open Source” – which according to Eric Raymond, means it should be better than Photoshop, right? “Many eyes” and the “million programmer army”? Better code quality? So why is GIMP ten years behind Photoshop, with a much-derided user interface?
Well, Im not a professional, but I like it. Thank you makers of the Gimp!! =)
I hate GIMP. And Inkscape.
every developer at some point, says “Why dont you use Inkscape/GIMP”.. Lemme think…. Because 99% of the rest of the world uses Photoshop? Maybe because I’m not using LINUX? I dunno.. Maybe because I need to get shit done before a client kills me…? I dunno though.. hard to say…
I love this article… FREAKING AMAZING!
I completely agree, this article says it it all about the state of FOSS.
All open source software suck, and it’s disciples are all idiots.
They should just accept the fact that FOSS is exactly that, you pay for what you get.
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuiteexcalibur.htm
…
@ Ado, why would you call people idiots simply because they use a program?
Gimp is a tool, just like a paintbrush…sure some brushes may be better or not, but always…a tool is only as good as the one using it. ~Sorry you were not successful with it.
@Ado: You are sad. I won’t even bother writing name of the awesome OS application I use all the time to argue with you. You are just sad.
P.S.: Indeed GIMP sucks.
Freeware > Open Source Software
I admit that some Open Source games are OK, but other than games, the productivity utilities utterly suck
You guys need to stop masturbating with kitchen tools and hardware and get girlfriends
Put the computer down and walk away from this blog.
Walt, you need to stop trolling the internets for little boys to molest
[...] fica com o lag no programa) e disseram que tentaram usar a ferramenta porém se depararam com o “Gimp Sucks” (em inglês) e voltaram ao [...]
I agree, GIMP is suck. You know what, i think before that GIMP is good for image editing. But now, uh… damn GIMP for Windows, it makes my computer hang while opening a large image (2000px X 8000px), i thought that maybe I run too many program, so i restart my computer. But after several tries, it still make my computer hang. Its okay for editing a 1024×768 or lower than that.
Then i tried to open the same image in Corel Photopaint, the file can be opened sucess, although its lagging on zoom, because of the low specification of my computer. I not recomended using GIMP for large image
Gimp should be withdrawn immediately, because it sucks eggs!!!!
I was wondering if there are any black or jewish people posting here ?
I googled “gimp is the worst piece of shit program I’ve ever used” and found this article.
I used Photoshop for many years, but decided to stop doing so when they began including the Apple virus called Bonjour with the package. Instead I’ve been using GIMP, and it is a source of so much frustration, it’s a wonder I haven’t had a heart attack yet. Everything, EVERY LITTLE FUCKING THING, defaults to the LAST possible thing you would want it to do, EVERYTHING is 100% counter-intuitive, to the extent that I have burst out laughing on many occasions. I often sit, mouth agape, staring in disbelief at the shit this program does. Just copy/pasting something is a NIGHTMARISH EXPERIENCE. I simply refuse to believe that this software was put together by people who have EVER used software of this type for anything other than doodling with the pencil tool.
I have never felt such deep-seated hatred for software before. GIMP is the worst, most amateurish piece of shit program I’ve ever used. And I’m including stuff like iTunes in that assessment.
I use Gimp because it’s free. I’m now considering the TONS OF HOURS I have wasted figuring out even the most simple things, such as moving a selection to start with, I guess I would have wasted less money by buying a commercial product in the first place. More than once I was forced to revert to mspaint(!!!) to get things done quickly!!!!
And why the hell do gimp windows always have to open BEHIND all other windows? It must really take a programmer time and effort to devise such crazy ass GUI behaviour!
I’d better stop commenting now as I’m getting nervous. Gimp is a CROCK OF SHIT!!!
Lasse.
We are soul mates.
I found this blog by doing the exact same search.
Sometimes I want to cry, because Gimp exists, and people use it, and sing its praises.
I would seriously rather use MS Paint.
Best article I’ve read since hearing about cs5, Kudos to you good sir
the best open software is Blender it’s fast reliable and has a game engine sculpt tool and smoke and fluid simulation, the reason I bring it up is because not all open source software is shit just most of them lol
Blender over Zbrush, MAX, maya, fumeFX
Photoshop > gimp
windows > mac
windows > ubuntu(but not by much the only reason I don’t permanently use ubuntu is because ubuntu cant run FL Studio, photoshop, dreamweaver without some hicups, witch I use alot)
Hello, I just found this site googleing ‘gimp sucks’. Not that Gimp is useless for me, but being very familiar with Photoshop, you’ll undestand Gimp offered me a good deal of frustration.
First of all, even for basic tasks, just double or triple the number of clicks needed.
Advanced tasks… what are you talking about??? Gimp doesn’t know that.
I’ll pass on the list of usefull/important features Gimp lacks.
Interface / Windows management: OMFG not only badly thought, it’s even bugged. when I select a image window, it remains behing the others. I have to click elsewhere and click again on that window. 3 clicks for 1…
Ssssssssssssssslllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww…….
Some effects take forever to calculate (core i7 920, 6GB RAM). Have a look at the ressource monitor: 25% of one core used… wtf?
And on and on, yes, Gimp still lives in the 90s.
There may be a reason no professional designer would work with Gimp. The productivity you gain working with Photoshop is worth Adobe’s rip off (good thing for them they still have a monopoly on that)
But Gimp is free, developped by a bunch of passionate people working on it because they believe in the open source ideology. So do I.
If Photoshop allows you to do ‘whatever you want’, Gimp still gives you a lot of possibilities for free. I’ve yet to find a Photoshop ‘equivalent’ that performs better than Gimp for free.
And by the way I’d love to find a InDesign and Illustrator ‘equivalent’ for free (well, I could pirate them, but I don’t do this (anymore)). And please don’t start with PaintShop, it sucks even more…
Bottom line: Of course, Gimp doesn’t reach the heel of Photoshop, arguing otherwise is plain fanboyism. I’d laugh at a pro graphic designer working with Gimp. But in a non professional environment, Gimp is a pretty usefull Photoshop replacement. Now, if you have too much money, you can buy Photoshop so you can use it twice a month to resize your family pics, but most people don’t have that kind of money, and surely wouldn’t spend it on a piece of software they barely use.
Last thing (off topic): I sense this blog is kind of anti open source. I have a problem with this. The open source community has brought a lot to the computing experience for everyone (open source components being used in every OS). Some Linux distros are in par with WinXP (concerning the UI only, as the amount of functionalities has always been far beyond with Linux), which still dominates the OS landscape. OK, 7 is yet another step forward that Linux hasn’t reached yet (still UI speaking), but Vista was a step backwards (speaking about stability and performance).
Again, Linux is free while Windows is a rip off. Plus, most users would be better off running Linux at home. You know, those who use only Internet, Media Player, Mail, light Office works… Those who call me every month because they got yet another malware (not arguing about Windows security here, I know it’s the only OS that’s targetted by malware makers).
Linux (like OSX but it’s another debate and Apple must die anyway): you just don’t have to worry about it. You go wherever you want to without having to think if you should click on that link or not.
Ok, I’ll stopp here or I’ll spend the night on it, but you got the point
Gimp is being promoted by a bunch of elitists who would like you to believe that their underground, masochistic ways are far superior to yours.
It’s being different for being different’s sake.
I downloaded a portable version of it because I needed it to do some on-the-fly photo-editing. It’s terrible. As some other user mentionned, you can open photoshop (or even paint shop pro) and do some very decent work with it after a few hours. You don’t even need tutorials, half a brain is enough.
Gimp is clunky. It’s like a neurotic girlfriend. It’s not that she’s different, that she’s deep or complex… she’s just neurotic and complicated. She’s a freak. She’s a pain to fool around with.
To top it off, she’s not even good looking.