[echelon]

1. GIMP needs a total UX overhaul

2. GIMP needs RAW support, precision support, and a better data backbone

3. GIMP needs a rename. It's both a sex kink term [1] (not to yuck anyone's yums) and a slur term for disabled people [2]

4. Gen AI will probably disrupt all of this anyway.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I8S3ZHQ

[2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gimp

[mghackerlady]

1. I don't disagree

2. GIMP isn't a raw editor, use darktable or rawtherapee

3. Poor naming decisions do not warrant a change this late, people know GIMP

4. Keep dreaming

[tokai]

This comment should just be automatically posted in every GIMP thread. Then nobody else needs to post these trite points again and again and again and again.

[mattkevan]

Maybe if they're posted again and again, they're real pain points and should be addressed?

[tokai]

No obviously not. They are just easy to bring up without ever engaging with the actual material.

[lynndotpy]

GIMP and its UI are the only material here, what are you talking about? These are pain points about GIMP that multiple people have brought up every time GIMP has been mentioned online for decades.

I say this as someone who has used GIMP for two decades now. It was the first real image editor I used, so the UI/UX is fine to me, but it's clearly a problem.

GIMP is steadfast about the name, but has been slowly incorporating UI/UX improvements since its existence. (Single window mode, canvas rotation, more consistent UI on Macs with 3.0, high DPI support, etc.) GIMP doesn't have raw support yet, but it does have high bitdepth support (both integer and floating point).

The whole point of GIMPShop and PhotoGIMP are to address these pain points.

[jrm4]

Again, it's about 20 years too late, but the rename thing is absolutely correct and I continue to be gobsmacked by the amount of people here who don't get this, especially as I've seen this place slowly move from actually being about "hacking" to being about "tech and business."

Perception matters; Y'all are so wild for this.

[lynndotpy]

While I agree, and I've been hammering this point as a GIMP user for two decades I think the "GIMP is actually a fine name" are increasingly a minority. Its name makes GIMP hostile to user adoption. Anyone who works in a primarily English-spekaing country knows what it's like to try to use GIMP at work, especially in K-12.

It's not like it was an accident, either. GIMP is a backronym because they wanted to name it after the full-body sex slave suit. They shot themselves in the face with that one.

[mixmastamyk]

It’s only the British (and influenced by) who have a negative view of the name. The rest of us don’t care, and wish you’d quit bringing it up.

For example there’s a juice company here in the US named ’Suja,’ and it’s obvious they have no Brazilian employees because it means dirty/obscene in Portuguese.

Simple words sometimes mean unfortunate things in other countries. Adults get over them.

[lynndotpy]

This is not true, I am in America and the name has been seriously problematic.

This is not surprising, the developers were English-speaking Americans who chose a name to cause offense on purpose, in reference to the full-body sex slave suit in Pulp Fiction: https://www.xach.com/gg/1997/1/profile/1/

I don't know who you claim to represent with "the rest of us", but I can only speak for the experience in America. It doesn't matter whether or not you agree with me, it's a simple fact that the name GIMP has been a barrier to its adoption.

[mixmastamyk]

Am in California and have never heard this word used outside of the image editor, in my entire life. Not a spring chicken.

Yes, finally looked it up after listening to boring complaints for two decades. Don’t care; mildly amusing collision.

[lynndotpy]

To repeat, it's not a collision, because it was not accidental. Kimball and Mattis named their image editor after the full-body sex-slave suit, on purpose. GIMP is a backronym.

It's also worth emphasizing that "Pulp Fiction" is not an obscure movie, it was actually a very very popular movie from the 1990s and it's still relevant today. It won awards from every organization that gave movies awards. It was recently quoted by the US Secretary of Defense during a prayer, who thought he was quoting the Bible.

While I believe you when you say you're personally not familiar with the usage of the word, it's a word that you can expect most people would recognize.

[jrm4]

Individual adults absolutely do, but "systems, PR, and institutions" DO NOT, and that is the important lesson that so many people here aggressively dodge.

I personally can download this software and use it on my computer.

Now, can I recommend it to my class? Through zero fault or opinion of my own, it still might be a very bad idea for me professionally.

Maybe I don't like how sensitive people are. TOO BAD, it doesn't matter in this context.

The clowns who refuse to rename GIMP keep missing a huge opportunity.

[lotsoweiners]

I’ve had GIMP recommended as a free photo editing tool in many classes. Just saying that’s while you may not feel comfortable with recommending it, many others do.

[stuaxo]

I thought it was mostly Americans who cared about the name and not British, could totally be wrong though.

[F3nd0]

> Anyone who works in a primarily English-spekaing country knows what it's like to try to use GIMP at work, especially in K-12.

Over the many times this topic was brought up here, plenty of people from English-speaking countries have said that no, they’ve never had a problem with it.

Yes, some people did have a problem with it. It's a valid point to bring up. But that does not mean their experience must have been shared by literally everyone else, or even the majority of people in similar circumstances.

[lynndotpy]

That's fair, it's likely not _everybody_ would have a problem. But _enough_ people would. There are contexts where I've had no problems (e.g. in an office where every cubicle had at least one Linux machine, plenty of people had already heard of GIMP).

I think if GIMP had a different name, it would have had less friction in its adoption (or a higher "R-number"), Adobe would be less extractive (for having viable FOSS to compete with), and GIMP would have had more investment (in terms of money and dev hours). I'm certainly happy GIMP isn't completely abandoned, at the very least.

[jrm4]

But what it DOES mean is -- okay, is it really worth it to KEEP it, or might you be able to get adoption, fans, traction, possibly more developers etc. etc. if you were to change it?

What is the strong motivation behind keeping the name and was it valid?

(No. The answer is no, it was not. There's no real good reason to keep it compared to the potential upsides.)

[F3nd0]

I would have answered differently, but I guess you were asking yourself…?

[accrual]

There was a short lived project to fork and rebrand under Glimpse with improved UI, but it's been inactive for years. All the links I find are forks of forks, 404s, and parked domains.

[stuaxo]

The name Glimpse has a horrible sound to it, they should have gone with something very different.

Also these tend to work when the new project has momentum and enough developers.

Sodipodi was forked to Inkscape, part of it was they wanted to change language to C++.

The momentum went to the new program.

[867-5309]

and what do you propose for the Great Internet Mersenne Prime search?

[lynndotpy]

How would any of this apply to GIMPS?

I think you might be equivocating these on their names, but it's simply not the same. People complain about the name of GIMP because it causes them problems when trying to use it in work and school. But nobody is complaining about GIMPS name, right? It's not even software.

[enthdegree]

Your point number 3 is very irritating to read.

[DANmode]

Why?

[Asooka]

Eh, every term for disabled people becomes a slur. Moron->idiot->retard (the latter being so unacceptable in modern speech it is labelled by the kids as "the hard r"). But you are right, we should simply not use terms for disabled people in software names. I propose "Thirty Years and Still Cannot Draw a Circle" or the hip short name :no-entry-sign: emoji.

[lynndotpy]

Tangent, but it might help you avoid an embarrassing situation later on. If someone says "They called me the hard-R", they're not talking about the R-word.

"R----d" is usually just called "the R word", while "the hard R" refers specifically to the standard version of "the N word". (As opposed to "the soft A", which is sometimes used synonymous with "dude".)

[Asooka]

That sounds preposterous, it's the same word no matter your accent. I am sticking to my version.

[lynndotpy]

Hey, I'm just describing how some words are used

[jaffa2]

hard R = ends in 'a' soft R = ends in 'er' ? or am i wrong

[lynndotpy]

No no, the other way around; hard R ends in 'er', and soft R ends in 'a' (despite not having an R).

[firebot]

3. They should rename it LIMP. Linux ....