GIMP 3.0 Enters String Freeze, Inching Closer To Release

user68k@wired.bluemarch.art to Linux@lemmy.ml – 402 points – GIMP 3.0 Enters String Freeze, Inching Closer To Release
phoronix.com

GIMP 3.0 has been more than one decade in the making as the port from GTK2 to GTK3, also transitioning away from Python 2 to Python 3 support, and a wealth of other improvements from the UI to lower down into enhancing this open-source Photoshop alternative.

The GIMP project announced on X/Twitter today that they have entered the string freeze for this much anticipated release.

73

Just in time!

Preparing for GTK 5

(Trying to be funny here, don't downvote too much!)

okay I'll bite, what does "string freeze" mean here?

They've committed to not changing any displayed text ("strings"), so that translators have time to translate everything.

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Place your bets, are we getting GIMP 3 before 2025?

If we're in string freeze, it's probably within a few weeks. They're in bug squashing and translations mode now. I'd take that bet.

I'm on Slackware so I won't be getting it this decade πŸ˜…

Sure, it's just another tarball to compile and install, right? What do you mean lots of dependencies? Oh, well, I guess there is Krita :)

port from GTK2 to GTK3

Migrating from an already rooten toolkit to a toolkit that is dead since a few years.

Nice.

Gimp has been falling behind more and more. Back when 2.0 came out it wasn't as bad yet, but it got worse as years went on.

Even better when we remind ourselves that GTK means "Gimp ToolKit" :)

It’s almost like the whole customized apps to fit into the GTK framework concept creates too much added work and needs to be rethought.

I don’t understand why someone should choose any GTK variant when they’ll have to refactor and rewrite their application every few years.

can they unfreeze the name?

I know people like it, but I agree.

And as silly as it sounds, I think the name is a big part of why businesses haven't ever wanted to touch the project or invest in it.

Imagine telling your average upper management guy or board member that you want your workers to use software called gimp. They're probably not gonna want to hear you out.

Anecdotally I know of a local NHS practice that refused to use GIMP, and was even sceptical of other subsequent suggestions of other FOSS due to the terrible impression they got from the GIMP name during a pitch to use more FOSS.

I get it's their identity, their project. Nobody has the right to dictate the name but them. But it's also fair to point out that they probably shot themselves in the foot by giving their software a juvenile and weirdly fetishy name.

Why doesn't someone just fork it and change the name?

Like, I dunno, "Super Human Image Treatment" or "Consistently Lovely Image Treatment Oriented for Real Imaging Stars"

Actually, someone did, changing the name to "Glimpse". They announced it as an explicit fork that would continue development under the new name.

As far as I know, that's as far as they got.

To be fair, if the fork sole purpose is to just re-label the software and make people that have irks because of the name start to use the software, who are we to judge?

People use Photoshop, but there is no shop and any photo in it at all (at least not when I was usin it, maybe they built in microtransactions already)

Shop as in workshop, presumably.

I don't think that's quite equivalent to having your name be gimp, which means, depending on definition, a fetishist in a full body latex suit who generally wants to be degraded or injured for sexual satisfaction, or a slur term for the severely disabled.

Eh, we can argue about language all we want but at the end of the day if it is still the same code just with a different branding, someone will be bound to automate the process eventually. It's FOSS, if someone is willing to put in the works to enable people who think the brand name is a hindrance for their change then more power for them no? We even change master/slave terminology in CS and many other field for the same reason (linguistic)

Uh huh. Yet somehow the NHS has no issue plastering its name next to Virgin.

Businesses around the world, who have no idea what a few people use the term gimp to mean, are no different. The name makes no difference to them. To most people around the world, gimp means that photo editor.

A few people? It's a widely known term.

To most people around the world, gimp means that photo editor.

Lmao no it doesn't. Almost nobody knows about this project. People know Photoshop.

People speak many different languages around the world. Gimp doesn't have a bad connotation outside small and sad group of people. A subset of English speakers only. People like that should not dictate what the rest of us, outside their bubble, do.

Since it is FOSS, couldn't they just take the source code and just re-compile it with different naming? Like how Debian did with Iceweasel naming and branding, though I know in their case it wasn't due to not liking the Firefox name/branding.

They won't. It's an old topic and they are clear about not changing the name. Anyone having a problem can fork and rename the project. But it seems not to be a big issue that nobody wants to do it.

I believe that there is a project that aims to do just this but I can't remember its name.

If you can't remember the name, it was probably not a good rename. "Glimpse" was the name, as the other user noted. ;-) On a more serious note, I actually liked the name Glimpse. But they did more than just renaming the project. They had plans to make it very different from Gimp too. So it probably died because of being too ambitious.

Why? Everyone knows what gimp is at this point

I think you're vastly overestimating how many people know about a random FOSS image editor. Gimp is not a household name.

When most people hear the word "gimp", they likely have something akin to this in mind (not an image editor):

IMO, that hinders adoption and certainly hinders financial support. It's an amusing name, granted, but it's not a good one if you wish to be taken seriously.

I have no idea what you are talking about.

When I saw this image my first thought was "WTF?" I have seen people complain about the name before but when I try to look up gimp to see what they are talking about I just get gimp the software. What even is that image?

Edit:

I tried looking it up on Wikipedia and there was this page

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondage_suit

That actually makes more sense although I'm pretty sure most people aren't into BDSM. Gimp stands for gnu image manipulation program so it has nothing to do with whatever this is.

You don't need to be into BDSM to know the term gimp suit. I've seen it referred to in media plenty of times before. I think it's less common now, but it's likely the first thought of many people who hear the name. That or the offensive term for a disabled person, which is not any better.

Tell me you haven't watched Pulp fiction without telling me you haven't watched Pulp fiction 😁

Also it's specifically named as a reference to the gimp from pulp fiction as it originally came out around the same.

It's fine for a hobby project but GIMP is well past that now and it's a really bad look in a professional environment.

Yes, I know it stands for GNU Image Manipulation Software.

People in general don't know that.

When they hear gimp, they think of a fetishist in a gimp suit, or a slur for a person with a severe disability.

Both are bad. I also wouldn't have my software share a name, even as an acronym, with other slurs or fetish stuff.

Imagine you're a manager high up in a company. Someone comes to you and says "sir, I really think we should be using PAKI instead of [proprietary software alternative]", and have you considered PISSPLAY instead of [proprietary software alternative]?"

You wouldn't even look into it. You'd reject it outright. Or at least most would.

Again, it's the GIMP team's right to name it how they want. But the name is dumb, puts people off, stifles investment opportunity, and makes the whole project look like a joke at a cursory glance.

Not everyone is an emglish speaker so not everyone know what gimp means.

The name isn't the problem, it's that gimp is hard to use and has a weird UI

The name is definitely a problem.

They'd be much more likely to have adoption in the industry, increased development, more donations if they had a name that companies and governments aren't driven away by.

I know some people in the Linux world think branding doesn't matter, but it absolutely does.

I didn't say branding isn't important I'm saying that out of 8 billion people only like less than 1 billion has this issue. A lot of people, even in government positions of various countries, don't speak english (shocker I know), therefore they probably don't know what else gimp could mean, yet they still don't use that software, because it doesn't advertise itself and because it honestly isn't quite as good as other software.

I just flipped through the introduction of a GIMP book that the authors hoped 3.0 would be out so they could cover it but ultimately based the book on 2.6 due to delays. It's copyright 2012, apparently something (didn't) happen.

we really got kde 6 before gimp 3

Isn't this the version where they pinky promised there will be CMYK support?

From https://developer.gimp.org/core/roadmap/ for GIMP 3.0:

Space invasion (work in progress):

Various color management improvements, CMYK support (not as core image format, but import/export and picking/choosing/viewing)…

That's the one! Didn't bother finding the source myself, thanks for going the extra bit kind stranger!

Looking forward to eventually burying the old "sticking with Adobe because GIMP doesn't support CMYK" argument.

Does anyone know if non destructive editing will be possible with 3.0 or if its a feature for the next ten years?

@lemmysarius @halm

After doing a few Google searches, I found that non-destructive editing is not fully implemented in GIMP 3.0, but that it is something that some of the developers are hoping to work towards over the next few years. GIMP 3.0 appears to primarily focus on moving to GTK+3....

...and new font handling, several layer features - including tools working on multiple layers, new and improved tools, wayland support, widows Ink support, new plugin architecture, dynamic guides, improved file handling (formats, bigger files, etc), I think some gesture stuff as well? The non destructive editing is implemented for some things, not others (e.g. if adding a shadow to text and changing the text, the shadow will change too). I probably forgot some stuff..

hope gimp becomes better yeah ik it is not liked that much

Still no smart objects/non-destructive editing? :(

Er, yes. It's one of the main features being introduced in 3.0. I don't know why you would just assume they're not adding it without looking it up. It made quite a bit of noise when it started being in the works.

Oh! Well that's awesome then, thanks for the correction. I did look it up but ended up on some "top feature" article which barely mentioned any features beyond layer multi select. I should have looked further.

They introduced layer effects as a surprise to everyone in one of the latest previews. It's a little janky, but it works