Thing is.
I've used GIMP for the better part of the last 15 years...
Now everything else makes no sense. I tried Kita multiple times already and it never works out and I go back to GIMP.
GIMP broke me, rebuilt me and made into one of their own.
Gimp's brushes leave a lot to be desired. Photoshop has had vector like brushes for years, Krita has them as well these days, but it still feels like Gimp has rastery pixels on the edge of brushes.
Given that I typically used GIMP for pixel art when I got started, that was never really a problem for my use case. These days I try to use Aseprite for that purpose but GIMP was able to do what I needed it to easily enough while being free and easy to download. It's got its limits but it's what I know. These days I mostly use it for its relatively unique (and charmingly janky) filters as well as regular contrast/hue/etc adjustments
Pixel art might be an exception, you're right. But to be fair, people can make pixel art in Paint. I mean, I'm sure it's not fun to do it in Paint, but it's very much the "ballpoint pen on notebook paper" of digital art.
Oh don't get me wrong, I do know that GIMP is not the best, but I rarely ever use it anyways and then never have the time to really dig into something else.
If it works for you, I'm happy. I'm just frustrated when GIMP is recommended to newbies looking into FOSS art programs. I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about FOSS art programs because thier first introduction was GIMP. As a result I feel like we have a lot more people who are in the apple ecosystem, when in reality being artistic shouldn't necessarily come paired with really expensive products. I mean most artists are broke and creative, and a lot of them have very left leaning ideals. FOSS art programs and cheaper hardware should be a natural fit, IMO.
If it works for you, I'm happy. I'm just frustrated when GIMP is recommended to newbies looking into FOSS art programs.
Don't you worry then, I will never ever recommended GIMP. When asked today, I recommended Krita and Inkscape (for Vectors)
Hugs to you. Honestly I just want the hardware support for drawing tablets to get better (on Linux), and I want Krita to work well on Android eventually. I bought an iPad even though I own nothing in the Apple ecosystem because it's just the wiser choice when it comes to drawing tablets with screens. But it's so much better than the days people told me to "just get GIMP, it's like Photoshop but free" - also the nightmare of trying to make my Wacom tablet work in Ubuntu... Dark days. We've come so far.
I see again, I appear to be one of the few since I have an old Wacom Tablet with good support on Linux. It's admittedly one of those without a screen, though.
This was years ago (2010 I think) before the good Linux driver for Wacom was made. Or maybe during the infancy days of it. I had a Bamboo Fun. It's funny to me that I've been fiddling with Linux since 2010 - growing up during the recession made me pretty receptive to making free solutions work, even if it meant troubleshooting things I didn't understand and crying at 2am because it's not working. I went back to Linux last year and it's been insane how easy it all is.
I went back to Linux last year and it's been insane how easy it all is.
Word.
My daily driver including for gaming with my friends is PopOS for like a year now. Never looked back through all the Win11 stuff and multiple vulnerabilities including the recent one with Minecraft that didn't affect me since Linux figure out containers like a century ago.
How do you like PopOS? I've been on Ubuntu for about a year and I like it but... It's Ubuntu. I don't necessarily love how the file system is set up, and snaps... Just... Snaps. I've been considering either Mint or Pop.
I like it for a lot of reason, but it's certainly not perfect. (but they're working on it...)
I don't necessarily love how the file system is set up
But Mint and Pop are both Ubuntu-based, so I don't know if that will be better.
I like that Pop has Flatpaks and steam included but it and Linux are still missing quote a few features to make them great.
For example: I have 1 4k and 1 HD monitor but cannot use them with their respective resolution.
Also Flatpaks are installed in home and I hatte that and the only workaround (I found) is not using the Pop-Shop but CLI and creating a custom install directory.
I'm not very worried about the monitor thing, right now I have some basic 1080p monitors and I may just eventually get one big great monitor. Hopefully just one monitor will not give me issues? How was gaming on Pop? I had a bit of a time getting Nvidia to work - kept getting some error. I needed to get the reinforcements (aka software dev boyfriend) to help. I heard Pop comes preinstalled with a lot of drivers.
Oh right, Pop ships with the non-FOSS Nvidia drivers and the only thing you should look out for is not updating those first thing in the morning because you will need to restart the PC right after.
I dont really play AAA-games, so your mileage may vary.
Gaming is great. I mainly use Steam with Proton which gives me most games (see protondb) and otherwise Look out if the games are available on Linux in any way, which a lot are.
The exception being some restrictive multiplayer titles using BattleEye or EasyAnticheat or stuff.
A little overview of what I am playing/played recently:
Thing is.
I've used GIMP for the better part of the last 15 years...
Now everything else makes no sense. I tried Kita multiple times already and it never works out and I go back to GIMP.
GIMP broke me, rebuilt me and made into one of their own.
Gimp's brushes leave a lot to be desired. Photoshop has had vector like brushes for years, Krita has them as well these days, but it still feels like Gimp has rastery pixels on the edge of brushes.
Given that I typically used GIMP for pixel art when I got started, that was never really a problem for my use case. These days I try to use Aseprite for that purpose but GIMP was able to do what I needed it to easily enough while being free and easy to download. It's got its limits but it's what I know. These days I mostly use it for its relatively unique (and charmingly janky) filters as well as regular contrast/hue/etc adjustments
Pixel art might be an exception, you're right. But to be fair, people can make pixel art in Paint. I mean, I'm sure it's not fun to do it in Paint, but it's very much the "ballpoint pen on notebook paper" of digital art.
Oh don't get me wrong, I do know that GIMP is not the best, but I rarely ever use it anyways and then never have the time to really dig into something else.
If it works for you, I'm happy. I'm just frustrated when GIMP is recommended to newbies looking into FOSS art programs. I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about FOSS art programs because thier first introduction was GIMP. As a result I feel like we have a lot more people who are in the apple ecosystem, when in reality being artistic shouldn't necessarily come paired with really expensive products. I mean most artists are broke and creative, and a lot of them have very left leaning ideals. FOSS art programs and cheaper hardware should be a natural fit, IMO.
Don't you worry then, I will never ever recommended GIMP. When asked today, I recommended Krita and Inkscape (for Vectors)
Hugs to you. Honestly I just want the hardware support for drawing tablets to get better (on Linux), and I want Krita to work well on Android eventually. I bought an iPad even though I own nothing in the Apple ecosystem because it's just the wiser choice when it comes to drawing tablets with screens. But it's so much better than the days people told me to "just get GIMP, it's like Photoshop but free" - also the nightmare of trying to make my Wacom tablet work in Ubuntu... Dark days. We've come so far.
I see again, I appear to be one of the few since I have an old Wacom Tablet with good support on Linux. It's admittedly one of those without a screen, though.
This was years ago (2010 I think) before the good Linux driver for Wacom was made. Or maybe during the infancy days of it. I had a Bamboo Fun. It's funny to me that I've been fiddling with Linux since 2010 - growing up during the recession made me pretty receptive to making free solutions work, even if it meant troubleshooting things I didn't understand and crying at 2am because it's not working. I went back to Linux last year and it's been insane how easy it all is.
Word.
My daily driver including for gaming with my friends is PopOS for like a year now. Never looked back through all the Win11 stuff and multiple vulnerabilities including the recent one with Minecraft that didn't affect me since Linux figure out containers like a century ago.
How do you like PopOS? I've been on Ubuntu for about a year and I like it but... It's Ubuntu. I don't necessarily love how the file system is set up, and snaps... Just... Snaps. I've been considering either Mint or Pop.
I like it for a lot of reason, but it's certainly not perfect. (but they're working on it...)
But Mint and Pop are both Ubuntu-based, so I don't know if that will be better.
I like that Pop has Flatpaks and steam included but it and Linux are still missing quote a few features to make them great.
For example: I have 1 4k and 1 HD monitor but cannot use them with their respective resolution.
Also Flatpaks are installed in home and I hatte that and the only workaround (I found) is not using the Pop-Shop but CLI and creating a custom install directory.
I'm not very worried about the monitor thing, right now I have some basic 1080p monitors and I may just eventually get one big great monitor. Hopefully just one monitor will not give me issues? How was gaming on Pop? I had a bit of a time getting Nvidia to work - kept getting some error. I needed to get the reinforcements (aka software dev boyfriend) to help. I heard Pop comes preinstalled with a lot of drivers.
Oh right, Pop ships with the non-FOSS Nvidia drivers and the only thing you should look out for is not updating those first thing in the morning because you will need to restart the PC right after.
I dont really play AAA-games, so your mileage may vary.
Gaming is great. I mainly use Steam with Proton which gives me most games (see protondb) and otherwise Look out if the games are available on Linux in any way, which a lot are. The exception being some restrictive multiplayer titles using BattleEye or EasyAnticheat or stuff.
A little overview of what I am playing/played recently: