wait, what? I've had a GIMP 2.x for at least 15 years now. they can't just... increase the number?? it's part of the program's name now
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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They're moving over to GTK3, so it makes a lot of sense.
so soon? gtk4 is only like three years old.
I guess we can give GIMP a pass to be a bit slower in migrating to new versions of the _G_IMP _T_ool_K_it than others...
It's just the GTK now, mein freunde.
It makes a lot of sense to use GTK4, but I guess they wanted to respect the chronological order for the GUI library?
The GTK3 port has been in the making for a very long time. Long before anyone even mentioned GTK4. Porting an application to a different GUI toolkit is a lot of work.
And it shouldn't be. Sure, there are some new features you may want to take advantage of, but it's lamentable that GTK doesn't try harder to maintain backwards compatability.
You know who does major version changes well? Go. Excellent backwards compatible over a decade of very active development, and when there are recommended or required changes, the compiler provides tooling to update source code to the new API.
According to the GTK team, trying to maintain backwards compatibility dragged the whole project down. I agree that a basics' automatic porting tool would've been nice.
GTK2->GTK3 was a major leap. For something like a GUI toolkit, changes and advancements are inevitable. A GTK4 port would be much less difficult, as the developer-facing changes are an order of magnitude smaller.
Yes, it shouldn't. Unfortunately, the developers of GTK thrived on changes to the API during the GTK3 era. I don't know why Go devs don't (and I am indeed very glad that they don't). Perhaps it's because of the different structures of the development teams or perhaps because GTK has more hazy goals. 🤷♂️
It's been so long that the two versions might as well be completely separate different programs at this point.
I'll probably run both when the new version is available because I've become so normalized to GIMP 2.10
It will take me another decade to get used to GIMP 3.0
I think it's gonna be Linux 2-7 for Gimp 2-3.
It's kinda wild that GTK's grandpappy is now the last thing to get updated to the current GTK.
But it's not even the current GTK version, isn't it?
GTK4 was released three years ago.
It's not even on the previous gtk
I mean, most apps and themes aren't on GTK4 either.
I don't need any of the advanced tools, I just want a cleaner interface for the tools that already exist. The only thing I'm able to do is make header pics for my posts. The 2.x UI is really, really old now. The time for a refresh was a few years back, but I do understand the limitations of a small team. Like others have said, I'll likely run both and migrate to 3.x when it's stable. Though, I do like the idea of non-destructive editing :)
Krita has been adding photo manipulation tools faster than GIMP is fixing their UX/UI, so at this point I think Krita will be the first to become the most viable FOSS alternative to Photoshop.
Part of the focus is an updated interface.
Make it easier to use/better UI. I don’t care for anything else
I realize that the major point of GIMP 3 is the port to GTK3. That said, I feel like colour spaces are what people have been waiting for and probably the most significant deficiency that keeps GIMP from being treated as a professional tool.
If they are really this close, why not set the GIMP 3 release date for when colour management is ready?
Non-destructive editing will be huge as well. GIMP 3 is really going to be a crazy leap forward. It is going to be amazing to finally get access to all this work that has been walled off for decades.
The bug situation sounds terrible. Honestly though, they should just get 3 out and then make bug fixing the number one job until it gets into better shape.
Not only is it a small team but right now there are basically two different projects ( 2 and 3 ). With only one code base, perhaps the pace of progress can improve.
Hopefully the move to GTK4 is easier.
So you're saying: don't release the GTK 3 port until colour spaces are also complete? Why not give people what's ready, and then when colour spaces are ready, cut another release? No need to make people wait who don't need colour spaces.
(Additionally, it's easier to verify that bugs reported before the release of colour spaces are more likely to be related to the GTK3 port.)
Colour spaces are ready. They are saying I may be hard to wire it up in all the right places in a month. Why not take two months and get it in? I mean, it has been over a decade already.
Many people have been waiting for 3.x for literally half their lives. To save a month, they are going to launch 3.x with the big change being the toolkit? Seems like a wasted opportunity.
If it were going to be 6 months or more I would agree with you. From the write-up though, they delay would only be a few weeks.
Also nondestructive editing
So glad they're moving forward on the non destructive front! Non destructive editing such a useful feature. I will always prefer to be able to non-destructively edit things I'm working on to easily be able to change things if necessary or to be able to see how I did something in the future!
Serious question: I've been using Krita to mess around with the tablet, but are there any good reasons to learn GIMP coming from a photoshop background all these years, given that I also know Krita somewhat?
My 2c from having used Gimp for years and Krita for about 3 years: Krita is better for painting, Gimp is better for image manipulation
Makes sense, gimp is the gnu image Manipulation Program.
This is controversial but will I be able to map right click to erase or another tool/brush preset/color? It just feels wrong to keep switchimg with N and Shift+E while making pixel art.
Why not use Pixelorama or Libresprite ? They are both really easy and nice
I remember looking into the situation with non-destructive editing about... 20 years ago. I wonder how long it's been a desired feature!
Reading the blog however it feels they are going to miss the deadline of May 2024.
Edit: Sorry I miss remembered it as March 2024. Still I am sceptical.
What is the March deadline?
I thought they were feature freezing in December for a release in May.
I really like the current UI. I guess I'll learn to like the new UI, considering the improvements that will come with it.