Re: [Gimp-user] Ubuntu version

[<jfrazierjr nc rr com>]

---- Dave Kimble <dave kimble gmx com> wrote: 
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> The downloads page should at least have mentioned that,
> and given the magic four commands:

Ummm... NO, IT SHOULD NOT.  There is nothing "official" about this package at all(I have no problem with it 
working fine though).   Note that the GIMP team does NOT produce binary files at all.   If you go to the 
Downloads page(http://www.gimp.org/downloads/) you will notice that the Windows version is NOT hosted by the 
official GIMP site but created and hosted by a third party.   Likewise when you click the "Show other 
downloads" link, you will see the very first header and text: 

GIMP for Unix-like systems

It's very likely your Unix-like system such as a GNU/Linux distribution already comes with a GIMP package. It 
is a preferred method of installing GIMP, as the distribution maintainers take care of all the dependencies 
and bug fix updates.


It is the distro's responsibility to create a package from the source code the GIMP team produces and place 
into their repository for their users.   Debian base systems typically do so on the following major release 
AFTER a specific project has releasable code.  Since GIMP 2.8 went "gold" very close to the time the last 
Debian release was put out, there was no time to package, test, validate, etc which is why 2.8 is not in 
those repositories.   Debian systems do that to try to maintain a bit of stability since it gives the distro 
"owners" time to test, wait for high priority bug fixes/patches etc, before something gets into their 
repositories.   If you want to always be on the bleeding edge(and thus have the possibility of more bugs), 
you should switch to a different distro such as Fedora where new software/updates are pushed out to you 
fairly quickly(as are bugs in said software in some cases.)  

For the record, I used Ubuntu until it switched to Unity(and really, I did try to use it for a year or so) 
after which I switch to Linux Mint using Gnome 3(better than Unity, but not by much... Mint's Gnome 3 
extensions really helped quite a bit though), and am currently using Cinnamon which I quite like overall. 

Of course, you ALWAYS have the alternative of downloading the source code and compiling yourself.  I have 
never compiled anything(other than a few java programs), and while it was a tedious process other than one 
issue(having to do with compiling the gtk+ prerequisite and my drawing tablet not being fully recognized) 
compiling on Linux was relatively straight forward... the hardest part was tracking down the dependencies(and 
in some cases, that libraries dependencies).   All told, perhaps a few hours of work... but that few hours of 
work and experience now grant me access to know how to compile future versions of GIMP, including those which 
are currently in development to be able to test new features that are not as of yet in a release build.  


> In v2.6.12 Edit > Preferences > Toolbox doesn't seem to offer that feature.
> Only 3 checkboxes for the Appearance (see attached screenshot)
> V2.8 has a Tools Configuration section, which is just what I wanted.
>
> "Counter-intuitive" was my polite term for "horrible", but I suppose 
> some people might like it.

Hmm, I am not quite sure what you mean by that(though, it has been a while since I last did this process).  
Why do you think it's counter-intuitive?  Is it because you are from a Windows based system where many 
applications have a right click menu->popup window to customize the "toolbar"(ala MS Office products) or is 
there something specific about that preference page that could use some changing?  This might be a good topic 
for a separate email so as to keep things on track and make for easier referencing and searches though...