did my periodic "GIMP is not the best Photoshop alternative, the UI sucks and it's an exhausting suggestion for digital artists trying to escape Adobe" bitchypost on bluesky (yeah, i know) and it got a bunch of attention and the way it has shaken out is basically like
artists: yeah the UI sucks, there's better stuff out there like Krita and FireAlpaca and MediBang Paint
people who just need a decent photo editor: yeah the UI sucks, i'd much rather use Photopea or Paint.NET these days or just pirate it
a (mercifully small) contingent of salty "fuck the end user" developer types: um. skill issue??? it's way easier to use than photoshop actually. also making good software is really hard, so, you shouldn't expect people to do it. instead of complaining why don't you give them money or learn an entire new skillset so you can contribute
people who actually do use GIMP daily or weekly: oh yeah i use it all the time and the UI sucks lmfao
this was all very funny and i did learn that GIMP apparently kicks ass at image compression. i do hope 3.0 turns out to be better, i'll probably check it out whenever it drops. it just... really grinds my gears to see people suggest it to pros and put it at the top of every "PS alternative" list uncritically. kinda wanna make a more nuanced list of alternatives but i'll have to give more of them a serious go first lol
