Hi Shlomi! Thanks for weighing in, and for sharing your motivations. Also thanks for your past contributions and I too hope you can once again find time to contribute to GIMP in the future. I found your articles quite informative, and I like your comment about the Tinfoil hat (What Linus said about SHA1 security was quite amusing). http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=linus-about-security-of-sha1
Hehehe. Cheers. -C On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 5:29 PM, Shlomi Fish <shlo...@shlomifish.org> wrote: > Hi C R! > > (or in the spirit of Talk Like a Pirate Day - "High Sea, arrrrrrrrrrr!".) > > On Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:19:54 +0100 > C R <caj...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I run a London Linux Meet, where a bunch of Linux and open source folks > > have drinks and discuss Linux, and free software. > > > > At the last meet I was showing off GIMP, as I often do when asked "what > do > > you do?" There's the usual ooohing and ahhing as I show what GIMP allows > me > > to do easily as a designer. > > > > This time, I got a strange comment from a new visitor to our group. He > said > > "GIMP development? What's the point of that?" in a rather sarcastic tone. > > > > In such cases I have to push down my annoyance with the tone and answer > the > > question properly, because I know such comments usually come from one of > > two places: > > > > a) User has tried GIMP, but didn't take time to learn enough to get past > > things that aren't obvious. > > b) User has heard that GIMP is hard to use, and is not an adequate tool > for > > professionals. > > > > Both of these point of views are skewed, but I find all it takes is a > short > > walk-through and sometimes question answering about how to do what they > > want. Most people just want a show, though. Someone to prove to them that > > their preconceptions of GIMP are incorrect, or at least incomplete. > > > > In this case, I opted to give the fireworks/show. My weapons of choice > this > > time included the unified transform tool, the handle-transform tool, and > > the warp transform tool- > > "Without development, we (designers/users) would not have these new > > features, which will be released in the next version, and are available > now > > via the gimp-edge repo." > > > > I love the change in expression. You can SEE the change from the > sceptical > > arm-foldedness, to hands-on hips, or chin-scratching that indicated not > > only a change in perspective, but also imagining the possibilities. > > > > "Without dedicated people constantly working to improve GIMP, we would > not > > have any of this, and nothing to look forward to. It's an incredible > gift, > > and allows us to work with complete freedom. It's there for the taking, > for > > the enjoyment of everyone. All one has to do is reach for it with > patience > > that is necessary for learning (any) complex and extremely powerful > > graphics application." > > > > I just wanted to again say thanks, and relay that even on days where it > > seems no one has anything good to say about GIMP, you've got fans who > > genuinely appreciate the work you do, and believe in what GIMP is, and > > enjoy what it will become in the future with your tremendous efforts. > > > > You're presently causing ooohs and ahhhs, in London. :) > > > > The question: "What's the point?" is a curious one. > > As a developer in the project, what are your reasons for working on GIMP? > > What are your motivations? What do you enjoy most about it? > > > > Well, it's been a while since I've intensively worked on GIMP, but I'll > give it > a shot. First of all, I'd like to answer the question why I am a proponent > of > FOSS. I find a lot of open source software cool and useful and in addition > I > had a bad experience with a certain proprietary software app (BitKeeper) > that > ended up becoming unavailable to me, and as a result decided to try to > avoid > proprietary software in the future as much as possible. I've written about > it > here - > https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/261w6v/why_i_ > do_not_trust_nonfoss_and_why_you_shouldnt/ . > > Since I like and prefer FOSS, and am a capable software developer > (including in > programming) I like to spend my time to improve it or otherwise promote it, > in order to make it better and more popular. I covered my motivation and > mentality in this post - > http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il/msg56378.html > . > > Now naturally, I found some benefits in contributing to GIMP and other open > source projects: enhancing my skills as a software dev, getting code > review, > acquiring some peer repute and recognition, enhancing existing code, having > fun, interacting with fellow developers, etc. > > One fact that I feel had held GIMP back is the fact that the more core > developers replied in a relatively rude and unfriendly manner to many > people > (and potential contributors) who asked questions or otherwise contacted us > on > the mailing lists. Someone pointed that out to me in private and I > eventually made a public post pointing this out, but by then many potential > contributors were driven away. Since then it seems that the situation has > greatly improved. > > Anyway, I contributed to GIMP because it's a useful open source project > which I > find of utility, and am not aware of a superior FOSS alternative. I hope I > can > dedicate some time in the future to contribute some more, and encourage > other > software developers (not necessarily programmers) to contribute to it as > well. > > Regards, > > Shlomi Fish > > > -C > > _______________________________________________ > > gimp-developer-list mailing list > > List address: gimp-developer-list@gnome.org > > List membership: https://mail.gnome.org/mailman > /listinfo/gimp-developer-list > > List archives: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list > > > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ > http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/Google-Discontinues-Services/ > > He who reinvents the wheel, will understand much better how a wheel works. > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . > _______________________________________________ gimp-developer-list mailing list List address: gimp-developer-list@gnome.org List membership: https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer-list List archives: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list
