this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (6 children)

Listen, I only need to know one thing: can it run Paint.\NET?

Because pretty much all my needs are met but

GOOD GOD THE SELECTION FOR GENERAL-USE RASTER EDITING SOFTWARE ON LINUX IS BALLS.

 

 


(inb4 anyone says anything: Krita = painting not editing; GIMP = sucks balls; PhotoGIMP = sucks less balls; Pinta sucks balls ever since they switched to GTK4; and pretty much all other options are MS Paint equivalents so also all suck balls.)

[–] RmDebArc_5@piefed.zip 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Have you tried Photopea? It’s browser based but very good

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I definitely don't mind trying new things, but that site says it's a photo editor. A photo editor is not at all the same thing as a general-use raster editor like Pinta, GIMP, or Paint.\NET.

[–] RmDebArc_5@piefed.zip 12 points 5 days ago

As far as I’m aware Photopea is supposed to fill the same niche as GIMP or Photoshop, though I’m no expert in the field.

[–] hellmo_luciferrari@lemmy.zip 9 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Can I ask you what "sucks" about GIMP?

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Okay, so, please forgive me ahead of time for the following rant. To be blunt, you did ask. 😛

  • It often doesn't use common UI/UX conventions found in most other editors
  • It has no polygon tools.
  • The Lasso tool is called "Free Select" instead of, you know, "Lasso" like every other software under the sun calls it. (Though I admit this in itself is merely a nitpick, it is indicative of the larger trends.)
  • The text tool is so bad. Honestly, I don't even know how to put how it's bad into words, but just using it is...painful...in comparison to Paint.\NET, Pinta, or even MS Paint back on Windows. Other people can probably word the problems with it better than I can. Sorry I can't be more descriptive.
  • It doesn't have Lanczos resampling for resizing images (tbf neither do many others but still Paint.\NET does and so that's a point against it. (If you don't know, Lanczos is visibly superior in maintaining fidelity when downscaling an image, compared to linear, bilinear, cubic, etc.)
  • The currently active layer seems to randomly change, so that one minute you're doing something and the next nothing is worked, you wonder "what the hell" and then finally after 10 minutes of searching you find out it's because the layer has changed and now you need to go click on this one obscure option. (I don't remember what it is. Select > Select None maybe? Anyway, I've had it happen where the option doesn't even do anything.) It completely throws my whole game off and I've never once, even once had it happen until I started using GIMP.
  • The default UI/UX is very rough around the edges. Just to make it minimally usable for me, I had to install PhotoGIMP over GIMP and spend 20-30 minutes customizing the layout and keyboard shortcuts. Speaking of...
  • The default keyboard shortcuts are kinda wacko. For example, Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Fit Image in Window (basically zooming in/out but to see the whole image in your window) is +, -, and Shift+Ctrl+E, respectively; while most other programs have it as ctrl++; (and/or ctrl+=), ctrl+- (and/or ctrl+NumpadMinus), and ctrl+0 (and/or ctrl+NumpadEnter). Also, you cannot use tab or ctrl+tab to move to the next or previous tab, respectively, because tab is a excluded key for keyboard shortcuts. (I think I was once told it has to do with a limitation in GTK, but that's ridiculous as Pinta has been able to do it for years.) There are countless other inane defaults for the keyboard shortcuts as well, frankly.
  • You cannot use LMB or RMB to switch between the primary and secondary colors selected. You have to use X.

These are only a few of the most severe frustrations, annoyances, and hair-pulling-out moments for me with regards to GIMP. I'd never have even tried it out if Pinta hadn't made the ass-backwards decision to move to the stupidly minimalistic and less functional GTK4 adwaita UI and if Paint.\NET worked. (I can't remember why it doesn't wanna work; I think it has to do with a dependency. I know it's not the .NET framework since that could be handled by Mono IIRC.)

[–] hellmo_luciferrari@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Hey valid complaints. As someone not in the need for professional editing tools i felt I'd be better to ask than to assume! Thank you for sharing

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's no trouble! I'm happy to explain! ^_^

[–] ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

90% of the complaints I've heard about GIMP are just because its UI and workflow are different from whatever tool they're used to. I like GIMP just fine because I learned on it. I don't even like using Krita because I feel like it's 50% gimp with a skin lol

[–] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Gimp is heavy in my opinion, no matter the desktop I opened it on It always takes a while to fully open. If I want to make a quick change to an image, crop, draw or write on I don’t want to sit for 5 minutes for the editor to open.

iirc gimp tools weren’t all that beginner friendly either.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 5 days ago

it is indeed pretty slow to start, but after that it's pretty fast and doesn't use much memory. I've used it heavily on my core2duo macbook (cpu capped to 800mhz due to no battery) until a few years ago.

[–] aliceblossom@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I'm with you. I love paint.net. For me it's not even necessarily the feature set, but the fact that it starts up instantly unlike others. Most of the time I'm using it to make a quick meme and having to wait for something like GIMP to open makes me feel like it's not worth making.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Kolorpaint is decent if you don't care about layers.

[–] Matriks404@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Kolorpaint is decent if you don’t care about layers.

How do you do any kind of work without having layers?

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

I use it almost exclusively to resize images (smooth scaling is good) and draw red squares around text.

I've tried it and it's a little too barebones for my needs.

I also do, unfortunately, care about layers.

But I appreciate the suggestion! <3

[–] matdave@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

I use Pinta and it's amazing for an easy paint replacement.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Why are there non breaking spaces?

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Because there doesn't seem to be any other way to have line breaks show up. Lol.

See? This line is actually separated after the above one by two lines.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

You can end a line with a backslash to have single line line breaks.

Lemmy just uses markdown, so any good guide for that should be able to help you:
https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/#line-breaks

If you can't find a specific thing, just searching "how to x in markdown" in your preferred search engine should net you an answer if x is supported.

There are also many markdown editors that can be run either locally or through a browser; these can be useful if you want to test some syntax without putting any mistakes in the eyes of the public. I like Obsidian for local editing and usually recommend this one for online testing.

Hope all that helps!