I’ve been using Photoshop alternatives for a long time now, but when I was a kid, I had access to Photoshop (version 2.5 and later 5.0). I’m used to the alternatives. Mostly Gimp, Krita, Pixelmator, and Procreate.

Recently I had a chance to use Photoshop 7 on an old iMac G4 that I acquired. Surely this would be like living in the dark ages, banging some rocks together?

Well, no. It turns out that this old version of Photoshop is easy to use and powerful. I can quickly do simple graphic design tasks that would take me longer in other programs or leave me frustrated. I can also do a bunch of simple photo editing tasks that I’ve been missing out on. This experience really highlighted how I’ve gotten used to missing features or poorly-designed UIs in programs like Gimp. Simple things like messing with channels, changing the brush size, working with 16-bit color and alternative color spaces, layer styles, nice text layers—it’s all just there and working and ready to use, in this nearly 20-year-old software.