Reply #9: Nothing wrong with GIMP ... [View All]

They call it GIMP 'cause it stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, but of course you knew that. :)

Some of Photoshop's products have more features, and I suppose most think that Photoshop's interface is easier to use. (Since I used GIMP before I even saw Photoshop in action, I disagree. It's a matter of what you're accustomed to, and I dislike Photoshop's interface with a passion. Floating windows are much more efficient. Embrace it now, or I shall taunt you again!)

Ahem.

Anyway, that's not to say that GIMP couldn't do most of the things Photoshop does via scripts. Ya just have to write the scripts or find someone who already has. I've got so many scripts on my GIMP installation that I've forgotten what they all do, which, incidentally, is close to what the average person would say about Photoshop's features.

Anyway, you're equating "best" with "most popular" I think. "Best" is a relative term. Best for what? People mistakenly get the idea OpenSource equivalents of things like Photoshop suck, in part because professional graphics editors don't want to or can't take the time it would take to set up GIMP to do all the complex stuff they sometimes do, and they bash GIMP for making them do that, or sometimes just for making them learn a new way of doing it. But what's "best" for the person who doesn't typically have an image with 37 layers to it with complex algorithms working on every layer? Photoshop is overkill for most people, so there's Inkscape, GIMP, etc. for them.

Variety is what is best, imo.