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Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
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Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 18:10 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]
It's a shame Google didn't fund a developer to improve the Gimp's UI instead. The huge number of people who have been using Photoshop for decades clearly would appreciate a PhotoShop-alike skin. I've been using the Gimp for years but I still prefer Photoshop's UI. It's all about the formative years I guess. This doesn't seem a difficult problem to solve -- something like http://www.gimpshop.com/ maybe, but not all creepy and ad-infested. Ah well. Hopefully this makes Wine, already a very impressive app, even better.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 19:15 UTC (Thu) by sim0nx (subscriber, #23065) [Link]
It's not about the GUI, but rather the functionality. Gimp is still completely unusable by professionals, because it doesn't support all the different color spaces and is limited to 8bit/channel only. Should they finally merge gegl, I guess there would be no reason for not using gimp instead of photoshop. The GUI layout is really only a matter of taste, I personally am very comfortable with it. But I think it's a shame they support CodeWeavers instead of Wine (unless they release the code), and that they support such an emulation instead of a native port.
It's all in Wine.
Posted Feb 21, 2008 19:26 UTC (Thu) by dank (subscriber, #1865) [Link]
Code already integrated into winehq. See http://code.google.com/opensource/wine.html for a partial list. (That page is missing 44 patches committed to winehq by Rob Shearman in March and April; I'll add them when I get a chance.) I imagine the improvements will show up in Crossover sometime, too, but that wasn't our focus.
It's all in Wine.
Posted Feb 21, 2008 19:36 UTC (Thu) by sim0nx (subscriber, #23065) [Link]
Ah that's good to hear :-)
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 22:58 UTC (Thu) by AJWM (subscriber, #15888) [Link]
Much if not most of that stuff (colorspaces, up to 32-bits per color channel, more image formats) is already in the fork of the GIMP that became CinePaint (nee Film Gimp). It's widely used in the film industry.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 2:10 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
Gegl, which is still being actively developed, is the answer to those problems. It'll potentially do anything photoshop can do and more. Trouble is that instead of helping gimp out people just piss and moan about UI issues, even though Gimp is now fully themable. If google put time into that then I'd be impressed. This Wine stuff was done for their own purposes for applications like Picassa and now they finally released some of the improvements. Not that I am not greatfull, but when your talking about Gimp keep in mind that it's lack of attention that keeps it limited at 8bit color support and not anything fundamental. If you want Gimp to support deep color and do everything that Photoshop can do, then you know what to do. That's all.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 6:35 UTC (Fri) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link]
Codeweavers isn't "instead of" Wine. All Codeweavers improvements go back to mainline Wine, and Codeweavers employs major Wine developers, including the Wine project leader, Alexandre Julliard.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 19:15 UTC (Thu) by dank (subscriber, #1865) [Link]
Improving gimp would help migrate a few graphic designers, or at least those that didn't need any plugins (which are windows dlls). But improving wine might help migrate... everybody. BTW, Ars had a better article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080219-google-into... and the original announcements were here: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-spon... http://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-devel/2008-February/...
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 5:57 UTC (Fri) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]
gimp is available from their distribution now. No need for extra setup. Photoshop is a proprietary application that will never be properly integrated with their desktop, because distros can't do that. Let alone simplfy its installation (and upgrade, security fixes, and such).
And all if this does not matter...
Posted Feb 22, 2008 7:28 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]
Because people who are using Photoshop for professional work don't need anything else. They are happy to use Windows, Mac, Linux, etc - as long as Photoshop is included. It's not just theme or lack of simple features (when you try to transform transparent layer it becomes opaque - exactly when it's really, really bad). It the fact that all shortcuts are different, all dialogs are different, in short - it's totally different program. It does not mean GIMP is unusable - far from it. It just means that it's not an alternative to Photoshop...
And all if this does not matter...
Posted Feb 24, 2008 18:17 UTC (Sun) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]
Shortcuts and such are the easy part. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMPshop Most of the users, however, don't use their computer just for Adobe Photoshop.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 22:33 UTC (Thu) by bersl2 (guest, #34928) [Link]
The perception is that the GIMP is unsuitable as a replacement for Photoshop. If the objective is to get those users to start using Linux, then it's much easier to get their program working than to change their preconceived notions about their primary tool of choice, regardless of the truth of those notions. Get your priorities straight. Once they have started to use Linux, then and only then can more effort be put into making the GIMP seem like (and be) a more acceptable tool for professionals.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 0:00 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]
If Gimp were easy to use, Windows users could start using it right now. The Windows port is actually quite stable. That seems an easier transition to make than trying to replace the entire OS. I guess the question we're debating is, should windows users be baited with the OS or with the apps? And the answer is clearly "yes." :) > Once they have started to use Linux, then and only then > can more effort be put into making the GIMP seem like > (and be) a more acceptable tool for professionals. Erm, I'm not sure I'm willing to wait that long! I'm glad the Inkscape devs are making their tool acceptable for professionals without worrying about Linux adoption first. And I hope the Gimp receives this sort of attention soon as well.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 4:25 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
> If Gimp were easy to use, Windows users could start using it right now. The Windows port is actually quite stable. That seems an easier transition to make than trying to replace the entire OS. It doesn't matter how well Gimp runs in Windows.. Window's window management is so poor that it makes Gimp virtually unusable. It just ends up being a mess of dozens or so windows from different applications if your trying to get any real work done. You can't isolate applications with virtual desktops. You can't have nice drop down lists to choose stuff. You can't group Gimp's windows so that they are all directly assoicated with each other. A good window manager is required to get the Gimp to be functional for a end user.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 15:24 UTC (Fri) by nlucas (subscriber, #33793) [Link]
Windows does "window grouping". If it doesn't with GIMP then I would assume is a GIMP bug (or maybe the framework). And you can have multiple desktops on Windows too, although you need to install it. I don't use Windows for some years now, but I don't feel it's right to put the blame on the wrong side.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 16:29 UTC (Fri) by im14u2c (subscriber, #5246) [Link]
Hmm. I don't seem to have much of a problem with Gimp on Windows. And VirtuaWin does a pretty good job of the virtual desktops on Windows. (Much better than MSVDM.) You might pay with the settings under Preferences->Window Management to see if you can make it work more to your liking.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 15:26 UTC (Fri) by mbottrell (guest, #43008) [Link]
Whilst the work is commendable, I have to agree. Adding features to GIMP would better serve the OSS community. I actually like the fact that Flash (development not player) now works under WINE (yeah, I know, but at times it's a necessary evil). I would prefer to have a native Flash development app under Linux but until Adobe get off their butt it ain't going to happen. :( Dreamweaver is probably the other 'big ticket' item that users would like to see under Linux natively, other than that ... working under WINE would be great.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 18:20 UTC (Fri) by dberkholz (subscriber, #23346) [Link]
I had Dreamweaver working with wine years ago. Does it no longer work?
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 22:53 UTC (Fri) by 3vi1 (guest, #39830) [Link]
Like you, I had Dreamweaver working long ago too (with a bit of help from Winetools and such). I tried installing it again a couple of months back and could not get it to work well enough to be considered "usable". First, It hangs after the splash, unless you've also installed IE6 (I got it running by setting it up to use the same config/files as IEs4Linux). Second, it will run into all kinds of errors if you try to define/download a new site. I beat on it for a day or two then gave up in frustration. Kompozer's a nice alternative... but definitely not an equal replacement. And, if people use a lot of Dreamweaver templates, "starting over" may be unacceptable when all you want to do is make small updates.
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 23, 2008 23:30 UTC (Sat) by jordanb (subscriber, #45668) [Link]
Regardless of if Google's doing Adobe's dirty work for them (essentially porting Photoshop from below with WINE) is good strategic short-term move to encourage Linux adoption, I think we can all agree that the only long term solution to this whole mess is to get GIMP to be comparable to Photoshop? And to demonstrate good faith, perhaps it wouldn't be unreasonable for Google to invest ten dollars in GIMP development for every dollar they put in this project?
Google funds Photoshop-on-Linux work (C|Net)
Posted Feb 24, 2008 19:27 UTC (Sun) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]
It is not so easy. From perusing the GIMP dev list I get the impression that the current devs have a tight grip over it, and don't want outside forces to change it too much. There are certain things that everyone wants (16/32 bits per channel, a one-window interface) but they are not given priority because the devs don't like them. And it is a pity because it is a very capable program. A fork would probably be necessary to incorporate radical changes, but Google does not seem to be the right entity for the job.