Hey, they changed the GIMP's UI

[charlie]

I hadn't updated GIMP in a long while and just found out they made a few changes last October that might help the teeming hordes who complain the interface is too weird.

First, the GIMP no longer starts with just a toolbox (a jarring first sight for new users). Now it also opens an empty image window and a basic utilities dock.

Second, the menubar has been removed from the toolbox and added to the image window's menu. There is now only one menubar.

Third, all docks are subordinate to the image window. This is the biggie -- no more dock buttons on the taskbar. A single button raises and hides everything.

The default setup looks much like ordinary GIMP:



With some customization, it can be made similar to a Photoshop layout:



And glory hallelujah, ONE button to rule them all:



Of course, it's not a complete changeover. But it's a decent halfway measure for those who can't bear using the original UI and those who can't part with it. The image window isn't a container, so docks don't move/reflow if you resize it. And opening more than one image spawns floating windows, instead of tabbed/docked inside the first. But it beats the heck out of using hacks like the buggy GIMP Deweirdifyer.

Currently, it's said to work correctly only in Windows and Gnome.

http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-introduction-whats-new.html

[RoyGBiv]

1. Yeah, it freaked me out ...

I thought I was gonna have to go yell at someone until I figured out it's the same really with the ability to customize the way it looks more.

They've even got a Gimp for Dummies book now, which I hadn't realized.

[charlie]

2. C'mon Roy, join us in the big pool

Ballmer peed in it, so it's nice and warm. We'll get you a tropical Mai Tai and fix those impulses to yell at progress :D

The GIMP should be one of those programs installed on every school computer, then its UI wouldn't be an issue. Or it'd be changed pretty quick, one or the other. I hope the coming austerity gives Obama the notion to put the kibosh on silly excuses ("We're teaching kids the tools they'll use in the real world"), kill vendor contracts, and get the software into schools. Free and Open IS the real world now, it's way past being just a "movement."

I'll have to see if I can get my library to buy GIMP For Dummies. The handful I've seen from that series were pretty good and there's nothing like having a reference on your knee while wrangling with something on the computer.

Speaking of For Dummies books, they've also recently published their most sublimely, ineffably, indisputably perfect title EVAR:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. And...

The GIMP extensions website has some go-to-hell great extensions on there. Really cool stuff.

[paparush]

4. Ooooh! Cool! I know what I'm doing Saturday morning! :-)

Thanks for the heads-up.