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Comment by marcusf | Hacker News Reader

Not sure where I bashed the people working hard with GIMP/Blender/Inkscape. If I've offended anyone, sorry about that. I was merely trying to convey that ~13 year ago and a few times after that, I've been confused by the Gimp UI. Sorry if that didn't come through clear enough.

It's the same thing with Photoshop I guess; You invest heavily in the tool chain -- I know basically every keyboard shortcut there is by tactile memory -- and suddenly your definition of usability in image manipulation becomes 'The inverse of the squared distance to Photoshop'.

I'll download it and give Gimp another go.

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> Not sure where I bashed the people working hard with GIMP/Blender/Inkscape.

You didn't. I am sorry if I implied you did. I was referring to the average stereotypical art student gone internet troll who are often quite vocal in bringing out their dislike of free as in freedom tools vs. their favorite free as in pirated proprietary software.

> I'll download it and give Gimp another go.

You do that and tell us if you felt it was better. Tell the GIMP devs too, they get too little positive feedback.

-I'll download it and give Gimp another go.-

I'd like everyone to do this but this just isn't going to convert you to GIMP overnight. If you are as invested into the Photoshop tools as you say you are you will just get frustrated at the UI differences and give up within a few days. After all why should anyone struggle with a free software if you've already paid a thousand bucks for Photoshop and memorized all the shortcuts that make you a Photoshop machine.

Having said that, if you were ever in a bind and you had to give GIMP a try for a prolonged period of time, it would be capable of everything you ever wanted to do in Photoshop.

Actually you stated "the productivity enhancements of a tool you really know far outweigh the price of it", which is wrong if you have zero money. With zero money Gimp will always reign supreme.

I don't necessarily know that that is an insult, but sure, if you're short on cash then free is always better and certainly beats piracy. I was thinking in terms of professional tools, and the output value delta of something you know well (this might just as well be the Gimp) compared to unfamiliar software.

If you're a professional though you don't exactly have "zero money". The amount spent on a DSLR alone is bigger than what you'd spend in a Photoshop license.

The only way that would make the GIMP an alternative to photoshop would be for your time to be worth NOTHING.

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