[K12OSN] Re: Which Windows apps stand in the way of Linux use atyour school?

[Henry Hartley]

On Monday, October 03, 2005 8:34 PM, Matt Oquist said:
>> 
>> Also, kids can freely install the GIMP at home; they probably
>> have to use Photo$hop at school unless they've pirated it.

While GIMP is quite remarkable, I find that it really isn't anywhere
near as good as Photoshop.  This isn't the same situation as OpenOffice
vs MS Office where OOo is pretty comparable or Firefox vs Internet
Explorer where Firefox is noticeably better.  Don't get me wrong, the
GIMP is quite good and feature-wise, it's coming on strong.  I'm trying
to use it all I can and it's getting better.  I do find that the things
I hate the most, though, are user interface issues that are probably
considered features by the developers.  It can be really annoying to
use.  

On the other hand, the cost of Photoshop is pretty outrageous and I
happily recommend the GIMP to anyone not interested in paying that price
(even the student price!).  For education, and particularly at the
elementary school level I think the GIMP is plenty good enough.  As was
stated by someone else, the biggest advantage to Photoshop will be the
amount of training material that is available.  Much of it would not
easily translate to the GIMP (with an emphasis on the 'easily').  With
the progress being made by the GIMP team, by the time these kids are
liable to be doing this outside the school setting, it's going to be
much better.

-- 
Henry