Yes. Pinta and Paint.net are often the best solution for lots of tasks. They will need help too.
GIMP has come from nothing just on donations. As I can get results as good as PS very quickly, that is quite a feat. And soon v3 will be out with more goodies.
Gimp isn’t perfect. But neither is Photoshop. In fact Lightroom users grizzle that Photoshop is so much harder to use than Lightroom. It’s a different animal.
I use Pinta or Paint.Net when I want a quick edit. But Gimp has the tools for serious editing. More tools, more hard to use.
Some Gimp things, yes! should be improved. And other things are being improved as we speak. And some things can be done on a photo much easier in Inkscape.
I hope the whiners donated to Gimp development? No? Then just please step back, and think for a bit. If thinking is too hard, then just take a deep breath.
Terrible usability will be the right term, if someone suggests applying one type of UI to an inappropriate situation/user/task. Such suggestions sadly seem to happen a lot in the Linux space. And saying CLI is easier is a sweeping proclamation. Whereas I’ve avoided making sweeping proclamations, repeatedly describing the many cases where CLI is poor. Usability analysis needs to know about the user and the situation. It’s not one size fits all.
I’ve used various command line systems a lot in the past.
I’m saying it’s more productive for many to invest in extending learning their home environment than learning a completely unfamiliar and inappropriate environment.
I launch favourite commands with 2 clicks. Once on the App launcher button, and once on the App itself. My hand is on the mouse anyway. So it’s fast. Way faster than typing a whole bunch of characters. For less used apps It’s 3 clicks as I’d open a category like “Media” or “Games”. And doing that, I get to see what I have in there. This builds up a picture in the users head for future use. Learning “Add to favourites” is time well spent. It can even be called “Pin to Start” or “Bookmark on Launcher” it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to memorise that exactly like the CLI. And right-clicking things is already second nature to huge numbers of users.
So I have no incentive to use text commands. It’s not faster. My hand is on the mouse for my apps anyway. And the CLI has terrible usability, via poor learnability, zero tolerance, and poor visual feedback. And completely useless for most things I do, like working with 3D models, images or drawings. I’m not a “text-worker” like IT tend to be. Plus, I want more non-IT people to use Linux, so discovering the easy ways to do things can help spread the word to them.
For me it would be like stepping off a high-speed train and walking over uneven ground instead.
Memorising does not need to be precise with a GUI, as you are given visual cues and can see the next step to click. You don’t need to remember precisely every letter or it fails. You don’t even need to remember the name of an application. The desktop app launcher shows you which apps you have installed. I often pin apps to favourites as a reminder. Some Appimage apps don’t appear in the launcher. I forget I have them installed and they don’t get used.
Differences between Desktop Environments are easily found when you change. As GUIs are in many users comfort zone. We use them all the time. People know their home environment, and differences need only just that discovering. Not a whole new environment.
For many people it’s not quicker or easier. If they’ve not used CLI before, they’d need to learn multiple new things. Going to a Web browser for help every time, before doing something is not quick. Memorising precise command strings that mean nothing to the user, is not easy for many either. For them it’s bad usability.
It’s better to learn how to do it in your own environment, than having to learn a whole new strange environment. Especially one that is not user friendly, with poor visual feedback, intolerant of any mistype, and requiring memorising.
Yes. I’ve been using Ubuntu and now Kubuntu for about 12 years and I don’t use the CLI. I don’t play computer maintenance guy, so don’t need any weird hacks. I just use my applications, which all have GUIs. I don’t need the CLI despite people telling me I need to use it. They have never tried GUI only. So they don’t know what they are talking about. The next lot, who typically have no idea about usability, tell me I’m missing out on something. But it’s always something I’ve never needed. If I were to use the CLI, I would need to spend ages researching not just some command, but a whole lot of other concepts that I have no clue about, only to forget it all if I ever need that again. So not as fast as people claim. Luckily, Desktop Environment developers know this and put a lot of effort into making them user friendly. They understand usability. And that different users have different needs.
Ecosia search. For the trees. Think of the trees.
GUIs, even the Registry Editor, are familiar territory for a lot of users. Give them a blank screen cli, and there is no hint of what to do next. There are good reasons why the vast majority clearly prefer GUIs.
I blame the Linux gatekeepers, keeping people on Windows. By pushing out misinformation to Linux newbies who ask a question online, and scaring them away.
Digikam for import, Management, batch processing, tagging and albums. From in DigiKam I launch RawTherapee for raw, Gimp for edits, and Hugin for panoramas.
Yes. Oktoberfest is enjoyable if you drink at a measured pace and avoid crowded weekends. Guzzling lots of beer quickly means you’ll miss all the fun, and you could guzzle beer anywhere for less money. Adding cannabis to an already tricky evening will not help you enjoy the event. Security for families and visitors is already currently very tricky. They do an amazing job keeping it going as it is. I also like the Munich local village and town beerfests. No crowds, no problem getting tables, and lots of tradition. Sadly the Munich Spring beerfest now gets as crowded as the Oktoberfest. The Dachau beerfest needs reservations too. But the rest are great.
“It is not strange”
The terminal is nothing like familiar GUIs people use daily. To most, the terminal is strange and full of opportunities to mess up.
“so much faster by copy/paste”
It’s not faster when the user needs to go to a separate application first to find the instructions, then find the text to copy. And also search for how to use the terminal, and that it might be called Konsole confusingly. And also to understand if the command did anything. Does it print anything that you need to read? Should you close the terminal afterwards? Should you trust copy pasting from Internet strangers? All this is missing from online help, where they assume people have used the command line before.
Such a GUI app could be launched from Dolphin by right-clicking the share, and selecting a new option “Mount” that would help discoverability. A standalone app would need:
You really have to put yourself in the position of a non IT user. They see a blank window with a blinking cursor. No hint at what to do. You know they have already chosen GUI systems. And for good reason. It’s over. The numbers are clear. Talk to usability insiders. As you have clearly shown you are not one. Many Linux devs have worked hard to carefully create desktop environments and Apps like Digikam, all GUI based. To give non IT users a chance to use Linux. And make it an inclusive and learnable OS. They hate it when usability outsiders scare people off by telling them to leave their familiar world into a strange and difficult place.
In Dolphin, yes it’s very easy to access the share. Ideally, DigiKam would work the same way. As do apps in Windows. This is why I say mounting shouldn’t be necessary. Most computer users are not familiar with such methods. I guess you are not interested in usability. Don’t mix what you find easy and what other, non IT users will find easy. And they will have to learn every step that you already know. The command line fails hugely on usability, learnability and familiarity. As such other OSs don’t expect people to use it. And as such have the majority market share.
Yes, if direct access is not possible, there should be an easy GUI way to mount a share. I’d happily help with the UX.
It is hard if you don’t know you need to mount the share. How long should people be searching the web for, looking to access the share directly like some apps can do, when they have never even heard of the concept of mounting a share. Telling non IT people to use some command line or other nerdy hack, with magic words that fail if one single letter is wrong, to do what shouldn’t even be necessary in the first place, is typical gatekeepery that stops so many from using Linux. You might not realise what a huge barrier, such broken usability is, for non IT people. Avoid being part of that barrier.
Like many KDE apps, DigiKam can’t see a network share. Which is a real disaster compared to better systems. It works if you can somehow mount the NAS share. But for non IT people, due to some sort of UX blunder, it’s never been possible to permanently mount a share with any GUI tool. Despite Dolphin being able to see the share. The nearest I got was to install and run a program called Smb4k. This will temporarily mount the share. And needs to be running all the time. But it times out a lot.
Can the user choose? Not if there is only an appimage. Some devs don’t realise the problems they are causing doing that. So it is very important to enlighten them.
Some were complaining GIMPs text and shapes were hard to use. I put text on images in Inkscape. Inkscape is ideal for that, having all the tools to use on top of a pasted image.