[raffraffraff]

Wife still uses Photoshop CS 2 on Windows, and I've basically told her that when her computer dies, she's getting Linux and open source software, or she's gonna have to figure out Windows 11 by herself and pay the subscription for Adobe. "Fine with Linux" she says, since it's installed on other computers in the house, "... but what can I use instead of Photoshop?". "Use Gimp, of course!" I say, and install it on her computer. Then I watch her get increasingly frustrated for an hour before rage quitting. It's not lack of features, it's UI, UX, workflow.

[otherme123]

There are a lot of paths that are unique to each of them. I bet the reverse (from Gimp to PS) feels the same. My wife asked to make a logo and a leaflet, and I never offered other thing than Inkscape. She ended up using it for almost anything. After a couple of years I bet that she will find Illustrator frustrating.

[CanceledAccount]

The difference is that after a week of serious Photoshop training you will have at your fingertips a world class, incredibly powerful piece of software with modern ML tools for smart image manipulation, collaborative tools and cloud infrastructure for syncing documents, plus a massive ecosystem of plugins and assets available to purchase.

I say this as someone who strongly dislikes Photoshop. I wish I had a viable alternative.

[hazza_n_dazza]

Photoshop CS2 is good.

[wott]

You'd better test if her Photoshop works fine with Wine. If it does, nobody get frustrated, there is no need for her to relearn everything from scratch if she is satisfied with that tool and her workflow established over more than 10 years, and you don't have to pay for a new tool.

[raffraffraff]

It does! Some very minor UI issues but very usable. Actually, I've got an old trial version of Photoshop CS6 (I think? Whichever was the last version they released as locally installable) and it also seems to work on Wine. But you can't buy that any more :(

[nicoburns]

You can run older versions of Photoshop (CS2 is almost certainly old enough) surprisingly well in wine. If she doesn’t like something like Krita, I’d try installing the exact version of photoshop she’s used to under wine.

[yyyk]

It shouldn't be difficult to set up a VM for Windows + Photoshop CS2.