The latest decision by the Ubuntu development team to exclude Gimp in future releases of Ubuntu was a bit of a head scratcher. I wondered why Gimp had to be taken out of future releases of Ubuntu.
Gimp is a powerful program for editing graphics that we all love. It offers everyone an alternative tool to Adobe’s Photoshop. It’s rich in features and capabilities. Although it not quite up to par with Photoshop, it certainly can hold its own.
Ubuntu developers explained the reasoning behind the removal. They said Gimp was too complicated, too intimidating to casual users. Too complicated? And Linux is not? Gimp developers seem to agree about leaving it out.
So, with no Gimp in Ubuntu’s future, users are encouraged to use F-Spot, a mono application I might add. And that may not even stick. Developers are already talking about replacing F-Spot with Shotwell or Gthumb.
The good news is it’s easy to install Gimp. It will probably be the first application I will install after installing Ubuntu. That’s if I’m still using Ubuntu.
Of course, this is all just confusion. Of course the GIMP is still in Ubuntu — it’s just no longer on the livecd. All software is getting bigger, and the commitment to keeping the installer at one CD means something has to give.
The GIMP is still in main, and is still supported. I think it’s important to emphasize this as it corrects the error in the phrase “no more GIMP in Ubuntu”.
By taking out Gimp, Ubuntu can now walk without a limp.
Is that what you are saying?
I’m actually saying that Ubuntu have NOT removed GIMP from their operating system, and it’s important to clarify what a small change actually took place.
Of course. It will not be part of the default installation or Live CD, but it can be easily installed from the repository.
I use Gimp quite a bit, that’s why I’m disappointed, but it’s not a big deal. It takes less than 1 minute to install. I’m not really a fan of F-spot.
Great! I look forward to the revision of this misleading article, then!
I don’t think my article is misleading at all. I think I covered it at all when I said that Gimp will be taken out of future releases of Ubuntu. It simply means it will not be available with the default installation. It’s simply not included. As I mentioned in my last sentence, Gimp is easy to install if you want it on your desktop. You can easily add it using the Synaptic Package Manager.
By the way, Gimp is a software independently developed outside of Ubuntu. You said “Gimp is still in Ubuntu.” How could Gimp be in Ubuntu if it’s not installed?
Ubuntu reserves the right to include or exclude it with their distribution. They went for the latter in future releases.
It’s in Ubuntu in that the GIMP is maintained in the “main” set of core packages that come on the DVD image or are available automatically through apt-based tools. It’s a fully supported piece of software in the Ubuntu repository. It’s in Ubuntu.
Software not “in Ubuntu” would either be in a PPA, or provided as a lone .deb, or perhaps not even packaged at all. Even the software that’s in Universe could be said to be “in Ubuntu” even though they don’t get the support that the “main” set do.
Further, the synaptic package manager is deprecated in favor of the Ubuntu Software Centre system, which is a lot easier to navigate.
I see your point, but I think we are talking about the same thing here, but just using different terms. In your terms, “In Ubuntu” means an Ubuntu distribution that includes the Gnome desktop and all the software packages including Gimp, Terminal, Tomboy, Gedit, etc, and even packages that are not installed. These same packages, by the way, are also available in other distributions like Debian, Fedora and Slackware. What I mean by not part of the “default” installation simply means that, and nothing more.
My point is that this sort of article has led people to incorrectly conclude that Ubuntu was dropping the GIMP like a hot rock, and that there’s some horrible process to install it that the nerds keep talking about that’s probably really hard since it isn’t part of Ubuntu so it’s probably just some cobbled-together shareware thingy.
I understand why you use the terms you do. I just think they’re misleading to the lay reader.
Perhaps, you should write in your own blog a rebuttal to this post that Gimp never left Ubuntu. It’s all there for the taking. All you have to do is install it. We can discuss in ad nauseum about semantics, the bottom line is, you won’t see Gimp in your future default installation of Ubuntu.
Apology accepted.
My text is blurry now that I am using GIMP with Ubuntu rather than Fedora Core. I’ve tried hinting, force auto-hinter, and antialiasing – nothing improves it.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!