Agree, partly.
I've migrated to a lot of different programs since switching to Linux: Premiere to Resolve, 3DS Max to Blender, to name a few. And I never expected the switch from Photoshop, which I so dearly love, to whatever good alternative that exists - to be easy. I'm willing to put in the time to learn GIMP, if only it hadn't such glaring and prominent issues that make it really difficult to use.
I'm not expecting a clone. I'm not expecting the UI to be the same. And, I'm willing to learn this program from the ground up. But I want a consistent experience - an app that works. For me, GIMP gets in the way a lot; making things unnecessarily difficult just for the sake of being "different".
I don't mean to hate on GIMP. It works very well for people who like it. But we all have different preferences when it comes to software, and in the end - It's just, not a good alternative for what I prefer. I'm willing to learn something new, but from my experience, GIMP will have (and has) a lot of icks that I just need to "put up with" to be usable. Especially efficiency. GIMP does not feel efficient, like at all. Might be because I haven't learned it, but even Resolve felt efficient the first time I used it.
I don't have the same experience with Krita whatsoever. And sure, maybe Krita is a little closer to Photoshop than GIMP is, but I much prefer Krita's overall experience much more than GIMP - even if it's missing some more advanced features.
I will stick to Krita, most likely, as that's what I find myself most comfortable with. But it's been interesting to hear what everyone else's experiences are.
Oh, this seems like a great alternative! Doesn't feel as snappy, (and I'm not sure if there's a performance hit with it being a webapp rather than native?) but this'll do wonders! Thanks for the suggestion!
Haha! I checked the Kickstarter and I absolutely love the whole thing! Doesn't look like it'll be for Linux, though (It says "PC and Mac" on the kickstarter), but I'll definitely follow the progress of this.
They're two different tools, yeah - I get that. But in the end, I want them to do the same thing. Think just, I've learned how to use a screwdriver over the years. I'm fast and efficient with the screwdriver, and I find it reliable. But now, I'm forced to learn to use a hammer. Both will, in the end, achieve similar results.
Okay, maybe I'm just going to have to learn how to use a hammer then? That would be no problem - if the hammer wasn't such an unintuitive mess of a tool that just doesn't work like how I would expect it to. It's just going to take a lot of time, that I really don't want to invest, just to "get comfortable" with the large drawbacks this hammer has.
I'm not opposed to learning a new tool. I'm opposed to learning a tool which just gets in the way, over and over.
I see. That, in my opinion, is too many steps to draw a box. What if I wanted to draw a triangle? How would I do that? There's no triangle select.
CS6 may work better, but I haven't tested it. I may give it a shot sometime, though.
Looking past your downvotes, this is another good example of why I find it difficult to learn GIMP. As far as I know, you need to use a box selection to draw a box? Like border that selection or something? In what way is that intuitive from any perspective? It feels more like a workaround, rather than a solution.
There is a Photoshop CC installer for Linux hosted on Github. I've tried it - it works. It's just not a great experience. Saving files is a pain, because the export option does not exist. You need to use Save As, and that only works with a hacky workaround.
The UI doesn't update until you do something that forces it to re-draw (like zooming or panning), which is a real pain when transforming or moving layers - for example. Plus, the UI doesn't scale. You need to use Photoshop in complete fullscreen otherwise parts of the UI will be missing.
AI filters do not exist, for obvious reasons. However, most other filters work fine.
And most obviously, performance has an extreme degradation. It's really slow.
But yeah, would probably get a "Bronze" rating on WineHQ, which is better than not working at all - I suppose. It's progress?
I'm starting this off by saying that I'm looking for any type of reasonably advanced photo manipulation tool, that runs natively under Linux. It doesn't have to be FOSS.
I switched to Linux, from Windows, about three years ago. I don't regret the decision whatsoever. However, one thing that has not gotten me away from Windows entirely, is the severe lack of photo editing tools.
So what's available? Well, you have GIMP. And then there's Krita, but that's more of a drawing software. And then...
Well that's it. As far as I know.
1. GIMP
Now, as someone migrating from Photoshop, GIMP was incredibly frustrating, and I didn't understand anything even after a few weeks of trying to get into it. Development seemed really slow, too. It's far from intuitive, and things that really should take a few steps, seemingly takes twenty (like wrapping text on a path? Should that really be that difficult?).
I would assume if you're starting off with GIMP, having never touched Photoshop, then it'd be no issue. But as a user migrating, I really can't find myself spending months upon months to learn this program. It's not viable for me.
No hate against GIMP, I'm sure it works wonders for those who have managed to learn it. But I can't see myself using it, and I don't find myself comfortable within it, as someone migrating from Photoshop.
2. Krita
Krita, on the other hand, I like much more. But, it's more of a drawing program. Its development is more focused on drawing, and It's missing some features that I want - namely selection tools. Filters are good, but I find G'MIC really slow. It also really chugs when working with large files.
Both of these programs are FOSS. I like that. I like FOSS software. But, apart from that, are there really no good alternatives to Photoshop? Again, doesn't need to be FOSS. I understand more complex programs take more development power, and I have no problem using something even paid and proprietary, as long as it runs on Linux natively.
I've tried running Photoshop under WINE, and it works - barely. For quick edits, it might work fine. But not for the work I do.
So I raise the question again. Are there no good alternatives to Photoshop? And then I raise a follow-up question, that you may or may not want to answer: If not, why?
Thanks in advance!
Mastodon works a lot like Lemmy IIRC. You have instances that you create your account on, then you can use the same login on all instances. Not sure how it works for content, though, if it's shared across instances (like Lemmy) or if content is instance-specific.