It's not the GUI that needs redesigning and modernising.
It's the fundamental goal of the project. I know it is a depressingly overused expression but if any open source project could be said to be "skating to where the puck was", it's GIMP. And they've made a lifetime's work of it.
As a scriptable editing platform for producing graphics, it's probably usable. But interactively, non-destructive editing is now part of the basic mindset of the graphics or photography worker. And this stuff just gets kicked further and further down the road.
All 3d packages have confusing and complex UIs. Blender’s UI has improved significantly over the past few years - it is now around the middle of the pack. Users care much more about features and functionality.
It's the fundamental goal of the project. I know it is a depressingly overused expression but if any open source project could be said to be "skating to where the puck was", it's GIMP. And they've made a lifetime's work of it.
As a scriptable editing platform for producing graphics, it's probably usable. But interactively, non-destructive editing is now part of the basic mindset of the graphics or photography worker. And this stuff just gets kicked further and further down the road.