Oh. Is Gimp still doing the even-numbers-stable thing?
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
185 points (99.5% liked)
Linux
61675 readers
627 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by AlpΓ‘r-Etele MΓ©der, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
I love Gimp, use it every week, and am stoked for 3.2, but I'll believe that it punches Adobe in the face when I see it.
But does it ?
Ive not tried gimp in years
Absolutely. Been using GIMP for years, and I have zero need to switch to bloated, Windows-only, monthly-subscription garbage.
DaVinci Resolve, too. The improvements on Resolve 20 are amazing.
I don't disagree that adobe software is bloated, but GIMP takes 20-30s to load on every system I've ever owned.
I never had this issue since I use GIMP decades ago. But I know in older GIMP versions (and I mean up to relatively recent versions) loading can take very long if you have ton of fonts. I don't know how long it has been since you tried it out. There was attempts to asynchronously load fonts and other optimizations to make it start up fast. At least for me GIMP starts... let me test it again... in less than a second. Having a fast drive plays definitely a role here too.
And it depends what method you used to install. If it was Snap on Ubuntu in example, well that is on Snap most probably.
Windows-only,
There are new attempts of patching WINE to make modern Photoshop run on Linux. It's not fully there, but looks promising: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Wine-Staging-11.1
Valiant efforts, but I hope Adobe and their software die a horrible death.
As a Linux user and sysadmin: I fully agree. Death to Adobe.
As someone who lives in our current corporate hellscape: unfortunately Adobe software is one of if not the biggest software hurdle preventing Linux adoption for a lot of people. Getting their suite working, even if it's only older versions, would be a huge boon for us.
I use gimp to edit (clean up) my scanned watercolor paintings. Yes, gimp is good enough now for what I used to do with photoshop: adjustment layers, more sane ui. Only thing that was missing is a very obscure feature that photoshop has, to merge multiple scanned pages of a very large photo. I now use vuescan for that (the free version does not add a watermark when using that particular feature, unlike its scans!). And then I edit in gimp, or RapidRAW (a new, lightroom-like app, that's easier to use than darktable). So I'm set.
Have you tried using naps2 for scans? I use it and I really like it. I mainly use it on my windows laptops (personal and work). It has a Linux build.
just downloaded it, i will try it later today
What do you think?
it's ok, but it doesn't allow for preview, to select exactly what I need in a page, it goes directly to scanning...
I think Vuescan is really pretty good software thatβs at least twice as expensive as Iβm willing to pay for it. Every time I come across it as a solution to a problem I realize that I could replace the obsolete hardware for the same or less.
I don't think so, it's just $33 to buy it outright (no subscription). You can't buy a good scanner or a printer for $33. It's a good value for money, especially since the guy has to buy (and most importantly) test all that hardware for each release. It's a lot of engineering time. But as I said, he probably forgot to add watermarking to the scanning stitching feature, so no purchase was necessary for me. The demo version is good enough for it!
Not quite. Itβs $33/year subscription, $100 to buy it outright ($200 for pro).
If it was a one time $33 I would have purchased it a decade or two ago.
It's $33 for the basic edition to buy outright, which is what most people need.
here in europe we get this for a one-off purchase:
I use GIMP since 2.8 version, which is ages ago. Used it to edit my photography, to create price tags for my local shop, create web banners, memes... lot of memes, editing pixel graphics, and more.
To be honest it was not a good experience editing photography, especially as it didn't have some standard features like layer effects. And the missing standard features like shape tools and such is also a big deal for me. Also for printing the price tags the color space was a problem too, as it didn't support CMYK. I also wish there was a simple "record and playback macros" functionality, which I saw in Photoshop years ago.
All in all these points and many other are addressed or are being addressed right now. GIMP is still not as good as Photoshop and there are pain points. But it is improving and already has improved ton of a lot.
It does.
I had to isolate part of a frame from a 70s Italian cartoon to make a giant vinyl sticker and it worked amazingly. Cleaned up the image and pulled it right from the background. I was also able to desaturate the colours well too.