Re: Happily using Linux for 20 years
.I've got both facts *and* user numbers behind me as proof.
Given your repeated claims that GIMP cannot do layers, when others of us use that feature quite often... That says a lot about the quality of your "facts".
I know a number of professionals who use GIMP, some moving after Adobe's screwups with licensing servers (making their tools unavailable when the server was down some years back), others moving because of the uncertainty, a few because they find GIMP and other tools easier to use, some because it's cheaper.
I'm talking people who design and/or publish books, pamphlets, large-scale mailers (by NZ standards) that go out to a few million homes, posters, shop signage. Around those I know it's rarer to find Adobe products these days then it is to find GIMP - and that's largely because Adobe seem to have worked hard to create an image of unreliability and instability. When your entire workforce cannot do their jobs because some distant server is playing up...
I myself am not a professional graphics designer or editor although I have been well enough paid for some of that work, but I have friends and work-aquaintances who are and these days most of those I know use GIMP and/or other FOSS products, and use it quite well. If these people found Adobe products better that's what they'd use, as they use the tool the find best for the job. They don't use Adobe products because they don't find them to be the best tool for the job. It is, after all, their livelihood.
But while you're claiming your "Facts" and "numbers" as "proof" that people cannot use GIMP, you have people here telling you that yes we do use GIMP. Your claims about what it can/cannot do are simply wrong, and I'd be interested to know why you're here making so many false statements.
Oh, and as to your"'But then you're just adding yet another layer of complexity, having to admin, debug and maintain both a non-native-to-Photoshop OS plus the compatibility layer. Plus any dependencies." - Ive spent more time in admin on my Win7 machine in the last 2 weekends then I have in Linux for several years combined. You actually act as if it is hard to do. And I cannot actually recall right now if I've ever had to "debug" anything at the OS level on Linux (pretty certain it's a "NO" but there may be something long forgotten). I did once have Photoshop Elements installed in an old laptop but I could never get my head around it, whereas I found GIMP intuitive I could not work some stuff out with Elements. I did not have to do any "debug" work on that Linux, I had no "compatibility layer" issues with it - I just slapped the CD in, installed it as I would any other Windows program, and used it without OS issue. Learning issue yes, it really wasn't something I could grasp in the limited time I played with it, but nothing at all with the OS.
I tried PSE several times before reverting to GIMP to do stuff - PSE for an hour, give up, do the job in 5 minutes with GIMP. Someone familiar with PSE perhaps could've done what I wanted in 5 minutes, but I couldn't work out a shorter way so wasted a lot of time with the supposedly better product.
Speak of what you know, don't make up false claims about what you do not.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
