Curiously enough......

Story: 13 Reasons to choose GIMP over Photoshop!Total Replies: 14
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Ridcully

May 30, 2011
1:16 AM EDT
Curiously enough, I had reason to use GIMP about 3 days ago. I run Photoshop7 in Crossover Office and am usually very happy with it......but for some reason, I wanted to do something and either Photoshop wouldn't allow me or I had forgotten how to do it. It was to do with very large letters about 20 cm (8 inches for you non-aligned citizens of the USA) high and for the life of me I could not get Photoshop to do exactly what I wanted.....it was trivial so it's no longer important.

However, on the spur of the moment, I opened GIMP and within a minute or so had exactly what I wanted.....and printed........Another thing I noticed was that GIMP's tool box so closely resembles Photoshop's that I was very quickly at home. Now, I will be the first to agree that GIMP's menus and methods of doing things are not quite the same as those of Photoshop, but they can be learnt and I can be taught (though someone very near and dear to me occasionally winces when I do something silly and says that I never learn). :-) But what impressed me, despite the distaste I have for the three floating bits, is that GIMP could do everything I wanted, quickly and as far as I could see, pretty efficiently. GIMP continues to improve marvellously as far as I am concerned.

Like many others, I am waiting very, very hopefully for the next version of GIMP that gives the choice of running in a single window like Photoshop. Given that, I am steadily more certain that my copy of Photoshop7 will then be archived and its use consigned to the rubbish bin of Windows-based software history. Crossover won't go because unfortunately, I require a couple of Win-based items for which there will never be a Linux solution, but that's another story. GIMP continues to impress me enormously.......but oh how I wish it had a decent name. Did Helios ever get anywhere with his move to do something about it ?

tracyanne

May 30, 2011
1:19 AM EDT
Personally I've never used Photoshop, and have no intention of ever doing so. Gimp does everything I need, including on a professional level.
Ridcully

May 30, 2011
3:17 AM EDT
Tracyanne.....I won't be surprised to see larger uptake of GIMP very soon. I certainly hope so........and it would be nice to see that particular team get all the support it needs. My link to Photoshop was built with Photoshop4 back in the days when Win98SE ruled supreme, and Photoshop sorta stayed there......legally yet !!!! But I won't be at all unhappy to leave Adobe's prison.
jacog

May 30, 2011
5:19 AM EDT
Following on from the GIMP naming debate, I spotted one of these in a computer store on Saturday:

http://www.laptopstuff.co.uk/p/Crumpler_The_Gimp_Sleeve_-_Bl...

Ridcully

May 30, 2011
5:46 AM EDT
@Jacog......Modesty forbids me from commenting further.....heaven help us if TxtEdMacs finds out about this absolutely delicious advert.
TxtEdMacs

May 30, 2011
7:21 AM EDT
Ridcully,

Quoting: ...heaven help us if TxtEdMacs finds out about this absolutely delicious advert.


Saw it ... so what? [Actually, I found it an interesting site and marveled at the content along with admiration for the discoverer. Moreover, Gimp Sleeves lacks a humor bent even in my warped mind.]

[Now for a quick diversion to the serious side]

I am temporarily hijacking this thread, because I have an idea given to me by your first post.

Crossover Office - used only by a small subset of Linux machines (and BSDs?) desktops where Windows applications are needed. Yet the number seems to suffice to keep the company in business while allowing it to contribute to no cost usage of the Wine application that works with similar code. To me, this implies an under count of working Linux [ / BSD] desktops.

Therefore, a market count should give the absolutely, bare minimum statistic on real Linux [ / BSD] desktop usage.

See anything wrong with this line of thought?

[/over and out of serious]

YBT
Ridcully

May 30, 2011
8:22 AM EDT
@TxtEdMacs.....I was looking at the Manufacturer's Description which is "interesting"......and for some reason the word "sporran" came to mind as well (my Scottish heritage)......Perhaps I have a more evil mind than I care to believe.

And now to steal your thunder: Seriously - With respect to your count of Crossover Office users, I think you could be dead right on that one. Anybody who deliberately purchases Crossover, has to be using Linux - they have no other reason for requiring the package........Not a bad lateral thought at all. And they might release those figures if you asked nicely.
tracyanne

May 30, 2011
8:27 AM EDT
Quoting:And they might release those figures if you asked nicely.


Please somebody do so, I think the information would be very useful.

Here's one peice of interesting information Codeweavers gave away 750,000 licenses for their product in 2008 https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Crossover_Off... They gave away $2 million dollars worth of Product (licences) to the French in 2010 http://www.codeweavers.com/about/general/news/

So they can't be doing too badly income wise

Then of course they support the WINE project, which they benefit from.

If as txt states Crossover Sales a a small portion of Linux and Mac users that is a lot of sales, which does make one suspect lots m ore people using Linux.
helios

May 30, 2011
9:05 AM EDT
"Did Helios ever get anywhere with his move to do something about it" ?

On a local level only. The new name for GIMP within the HeliOS/Unbuntu respin is ArtForge.

GIMP has way too much history for them to even consider a global name change. We will keep a stable version of ArtForge in our local repository, along with the current tutorial. It was a bit of a pain to go through the entire app and change the visible mention of GIMP and change it to ArtForge but we won't do it that often...only when a new and major release is available.

We also have someone working on the splash screen for us but it's not ready yet. The downside is that we need to explain to every recipient that the online tutorials will be for "GIMP" and not for ArtForge. That's why we keep the major tutorials in the respin. Hopefully, it won't cause too much confusion or angst...unlike the whole subject did within the community.
TxtEdMacs

May 30, 2011
11:23 AM EDT
Ridcully,

Sorry the impression I wrote of the site was based upon just a scan, I did not delve into the detailed descriptions. Had I it appears you may have had your wish fulfilled. But I now have to feed my addiction on other topics located elsewhere first.

ta,

You implicitly pointed out the flaw in my reasoning. Macs make it more difficult to say the numbers are a base value for Linux with perhaps a minute correction for BSD desktops. So one would need gross numbers attached to the apparent OS to which the application is attached making it more difficult to ask for such data along with a potential undercount.

[I am no longer an editor for LXer, however, were I my approach would be to do a profile of the Crossover Office company as an interview where they are given nearly free reign to tout their products and company. In a sense a free business analysis of the company and products with a projection of their future prospects. Given such a gift, they might allow some use of their numbers, provided their actual details were obscured from a competitor easily harvesting their efforts.]

[/ all very serious]

As always,

YBT
Scott_Ruecker

May 30, 2011
3:15 PM EDT
Wow txt..you lay hints like I do..with the subtly of a forest fire..lol.

I would love to do a profile of Wine/Crossover (and I thank you txt for the timely nudge) but minus the free advertising. If I/we cannot get them to share some of their market data with us then so be it. I have no intention of selling LXer's soul just to massage some numbers out of a corporate officer when any number they give would be the subject of an intense debate as it is. Just LXer doing a profile, interview, review etc on a company or employee of one is advert enough I believe txt.



Steven_Rosenber

May 30, 2011
5:11 PM EDT
Warning: The following comment has nothing to do with Wine, Crossover or Photoshop (I assume the freewheeling topic-fungible world of LXer exists elsewhere and am surprised when certain BSD forums open a huge flame on my rear for taking the thread where it has not gone before):

I've always said I wanted to learn more Inkscape, and I rolled out a design for a SpreadShirt (instant-printed) T-shirt by:

-- Starting with .svg file in Inkscape, deleting elements I didn't want.

-- Opening the edited .svg file in GIMP, discarding the background, cropping closer and outputting a .png for my T-shirt images.

I'll let you know how it turns out (i.e. when I get the T-shirt).

-----------

Please return to your previously on-topic Wine/Crossover/Photoshop discussion.
BernardSwiss

May 30, 2011
6:46 PM EDT
I found the actual article to be rather thin; in fact I would have considered it a waste of time -- but I found the discussion in the comments section, following the article itself, well worth reading. As a non graphic artist professional, I think I came away with a much better sense of the relative merits and failings of GIMP vis-a-vis PhotoShop.

TxtEdMacs

May 30, 2011
7:42 PM EDT
Hey Scott, your the Chief so anything you say goes on LXer.

Remember, I said only if I were and I am not, so it's moot conjecture of a worst case scenario. Years ago I projected on a variety of potential products mostly with an optimistic bias - some to date have not yet appeared and others probably approach use by the ton (relatively). Niche, high cost market applications. In others, I over valued their potential (including the one in high use) to really do good.

As always,

YBT
caitlyn

Jun 02, 2011
1:04 AM EDT
I still have a book called "The Artists' Guide to the Gimp" which helped me master GIMP back in 1999. The name doesn't need changing. The software keeps improving. It does everything I need.

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