F-Spot replacing Gimp

[Ole Juul]

There's an article at Ars about how Ubuntu is going to get a simpler replacement for the Gimp.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/n...m-maturity.ars
The argument is that the Gimp is too difficult and takes too long to load. I agree that it has a steep learning curve if you want to do really fancy stuff, but that last bit is a lie from the writer, so I wonder what's going on there. Does the writer have an agenda here? Whatever. The Gimp is certainly an odd creature and most people would probably be grateful for something a little better tailored to their actual needs. What is interesting is that F-Spot is apparently mono based. The whole thing smells fishy to me.

What do other people think about this "development"?

[Snowhog]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

Don't like it. I LIKE Gimp. Difficult? Depends on what you want to do with it. For my needs, Gimp is quite easy to use. I use it a fair amount.

Added: Can't even view the site in Konqueror!

[MoonRise]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

Difficult!!?? I'm no artist but GIMP was certainly easy to pick up. GIMP to me was way better than any commercially available application. Mono based huh? That explains it. Try to get M$ wrapped in so boot out GIMP. I don't like that one bit!!.

[Ole Juul]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

On the other hand, perhaps leaving Gimp out of Ubuntu may keep it safe. No?

[Telengard]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

On the other hand, perhaps leaving Gimp out of Ubuntu may keep it safe. No?

The only thing that will keep Gimp safe is to divorce it from Gnome. After Gnome goes whole-hog mono all Gnome apps will be forced to adapt to mono or else fork. At least that is my fear for the future.

[Ole Juul]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

The only thing that will keep Gimp safe is to divorce it from Gnome.

Ah, I forgot. Still, perhaps this is a good first step in that direction.

[dibl]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

I've used gimp for graphics work since I adopted Linux 3+ years ago -- even for an amateur like me it is a good solution for fiddling with photos or other images, including "tweaking" the contrast, color hues, etc. I have found it very comparable to the Paintshop Pro that I used to use on Windows. I'm not sure what's up with Ubuntu, but it sounds like they are "fixing" a non-problem.

[MoonRise]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

It is a non-problem. This is Ubuntu's way of forcing mono plain and simple. To say GIMP is overly complicated is a joke. Like Dibl, I picked up on GIMP about 3/4 years ago and never had issue figuring it out. Then I was a newbie to it and didn't think it was complicated.

[Adrian]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

What's the default photo editor program in Kubuntu? Do we have one?

[Telengard]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

Paintshop Pro

I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7 for a few years before I discovered Gimp on Windows. PSP was a very powerful program and had a slick UI that made it pretty easy to pick up basic techniques. IIRC there was also an interactive tutorial mode.

Lets face facts though. Any program with the power and capabilities of a Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or Gimp is necessarily more complicated than MS Paint. Sure Gimp's UI lacks polish in some ways compared to its commercial peers, but Gimp is still powerful, flexible, and customizable. There is a ton of Gimp documentation on the web, official and unofficial, and YouTube is rife with impromptu video tutorials by skilled artists using Gimp.

The really frustrating part is that Gimp is a modular program, so If they need a simpler program with a narrower range of features, why not make a scaled down Gimp? For example, if the only two buttons needed are resize picture and crop picture, then I'm pretty sure you can get that by customizing Gimp's UI. Call it Gimp-lite if you want, but it only loads the libraries needed to do those minimal functions, so it will load a lot faster. Also it shares the same libraries as Gimp-full so it doesn't take up any more disk space.

[Telengard]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

What's the default photo editor program in Kubuntu? Do we have one?

We used to have Krita back in the Feisty Fawn days. Unfortunately KOffice is no longer part of Kubuntu AFAIK, and Krita went with it.

[toad]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

What's the default photo editor program in Kubuntu? Do we have one?

What about digikam with all the kipi-plugins?

And Telengard - I missed the whole discussion about gnome going mono! Do you happen to have a link handy or something?

[Telengard]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

@Toad

Read my post in the thread Glimps into the future? to understand my feelings on the subject, then read the rest of that thread to gain context on the situation.

To further expand your understanding of the discussions which have transpired here, go to the advanced search page and search for posts by user GreyGeek containing the text mono.

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[MoonRise]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

Yes DigiKam is good, I've used it. I agree with Telengard though. GIMP is modular and can be fitted to be a lite version or Full. One reason I fail to see why the move.

[skunk]

Re: F-Spot replacing Gimp

Perhaps the reason to drop gimp from the standard install has more to do with the amount of free space on the LiveCD