Re: [Gimp-developer] Asking for a Miracle !?

[MichaelGrosberg <grosberg michael gmail com>]

Webdrifter <onzemeelbox <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Dear developers,
>
> Photoshop has been the number One in photo editing for decades. Gimp has
always been the alternative 
> that could never push Photoshop from it's throne, despite being free of
charge. However, potentially 
> Gimp should be able to knock Photoshop of it's throne. But there are three
reason is never has. 
> Those reasons are: "interface", "interface" and "interface". 

I would like to politely disagree.
The surface reason Gimp has so far failed to dethrone Photoshop is that it
is light-years away from feature parity. GEGL, the back-end that's supposed
to allow Gimp to even have those features at some point in the future, is
still being worked on. the features themselves are years down the road.

But that's just the surface reason. The real reason is lack of developers.
Gimp has been unable to attract developers in the numbers necessary to
create a Photoshop-killer. The reason, as I see it, is a lack of strong
leadership and vision. Blender, for example, has Ton Roosendaal, whose
vision and enthusiasm swept people and made Blender into the amazing piece
of software it is today. You need someone like Ton to attract people and
find backers and allies in the business world who can contribute man-hours,
expertise or money. As it is, though, the Gimp project is almost comatose.