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.

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

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)

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.