[extralobe]

I just read a thread from a fellow who was looking for a copy of 3dsMAX, any way he could get it, and it seemed like piracy was the most likely candidate.

I've also noticed that a lot of people seem to be looking around for warez copies of photoshop. The prices of these apps are extremely high, far out of reach of the aspiring beginner ..

But piracy is pretty much wrong in my book. So I thought I'd point out a package that is very similar to photoshop and accomplishes most of what photoshop can do, yet is completely Free - free software free ( www.gnu.org ).

The Gimp www.gimp.org is a great photomanipulation and painting program, originally for unix machines but now ported to windows.

I use it everyday. Going to photoshop is painful now, because the Gimp's interface is so much smoother.

I hope this helps someone keep from dipping into piracy when the Free alternative is legal and (imho) a bit better.

(a note for professionals: gimp does not support fancy color stuff like pantone, cmyk etc.. so you'll have to wait )

[zarck]

gimp is a great program, but it has to many bugs, and flaws atm. in some time it might be better than photoshop. but atm its only in the photoshop 3 class.

[Svanur]

I can't see piracy as inherently evil unless the one who is using the pirate version is making money from it. Many great artists and programmers have begun their career by getting a pirated copy and then learning on it. After they have mastered the tool they are able to see that they would profit more from buying the software itself. I can only see that the manufacturers(Adobe, Discreet) can do nothing but gain on this. The more people that are likely to master the program the more likely that other people are going to buy their software so they can use it for commercial purposes. Discreet have now announced that they will release 3d Studio gMAX for free and they hope by doing that they will support the modeling community and further on, the people will want to try the real thing and then they will probably buy it. They also going to charge a fee on things that are made on gMAX for commercial purposes but as long as the user ain't selling his model they ain't suing. This is the future of the computer world. The manufacturers will probably give their programs away but when people want to use the program they would have to pay royalties.

[Ko]

Gimp... smooth??? aw come on.....

I agree with the points you make regarding piracy vs. free software.
But do you honestly think that Gimp is smooth to work with? It's just crawling along on my dual PIII system which handles Photoshop nicely.....
The hotkeys also seem very frustrating to get used to! But thats a matter of personal taste....

As a cheap substitute for Photoshop I recommend Paintshop Pro, which has an almost identical set of features and operates very similarly to Photoshop.

I use Photoshop everyday at work for highend image manipulation, so my opinions might be a little single-tracked because of my addiction to Photoshop.

The point of this post was infact just to point out Paintshop Pro as a better (in my opinion) alternative to Gimp....

Well... heck try 'em both and make up your own mind!

Ko

[extralobe]

zarck: you're right about "a few too many bugs" right now. beta for 1.2 is slowly coming to a close, though, and that means 'stability'

svanur: you make some good points. <advocacy hat on> you might find some of the FSF material interesting http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

ko: i don't know what version of gimp you were using, but i use my gimp for painting and drawing 1200x1200 images with many layers all the time, on a k62-450, and it's been smooth. as for psp, another good choice .. but i find it's interface to be very ugly and frustrating.

Just hoping some of you fine artists take a peek at the gimp

[ceenda]

Hmm, been a while since I did maths academically but perhaps...

(price) OC (1 / (number of sales))

If the price comes down, surely more units are sold.

If Photoshop sold for $60 then I don't doubt almost _everyone_ on this site would buy it meaning tons of sales for Adobe.

Isn't that how the early Microsoft Windows became so widespread, i.e. because they slashed it from something like $400 to $40?

[EDIT] - A note about Paint Shop Pro - IMHO, Paint Shop Pro has the worst airbrush tool I have ever used. Imagine taking a circle stencil and using it again and again - that's the kind of effect you get. Corel, Adobe, GIMP and others seem to be able to do a decent airbrush tool, why can't JASC? I would _seriously_ consider Paint Shop Pro if it wasn't so amateur on details like that. Apart from that, Paint Shop Pro is excellent but just so you know.


[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited August 22, 2000).]

[virago]

Actually, i have talked to some adobe and kinetix guys, and they don't mind pirated copies that much, as long as no money is made with them. And they have a point, i mean.. if you learn using photoshop with a pirated version, and then start doing professional work, it's more than fair to buy your copy, it's really not expensive compared to the amount of money which is made with good photoshop graphics..

About the gimp, well.. it's a nice try, but at the moment, it's hardly a match for photoshop or painter or the likes. the gimp's interface is just too strange, especially if you're used to photoshop, and i don't see linux beating windows as a desktop os..

just my view

Martijn ([email protected])

[Grendel Khan]

Linux can beat Windoze any day of the week as an OS.

The "only" problem about Linux is that it's hard to configure when you've got some strange hardware (hardware vendors' fault) and that it's not ready for the average user, there's still too much do-it-yourself stuff. However, that's going to get solved with time, maybe in 1 or 2 years anybody will be able to install it.

As for Gimp, I've got a preview for 1.2 and it looks good but it's got too many bugs .

Grendel Khan

still trying to make my USB Graphire to work under X.

[extralobe]

Grendel Kahn: have you had a look at http://www.pxh.de/fs/graphire/ ?

Also - there is no gimp 1.2 yet it hasn't been release because it's beta - which means they want to know about those bugs you've found so they can fix them

The Gimp bug tracker is at http://www.xach.com/gimp/news/bugreport.html

[Grendel Khan]

extralobe: thanks for the link, but i had already seen it. I don't know what I do wrong, the kernel detects the graphire but X don't ...uhh... nevermind, off-topic.
By preview I meant beta, sorry I messed Gimp with the latest kernel (2.4pre7 or something).

[aquamire]

How about this for an idea?

Adobe counts on people like us, in this forum.. most of us, with the exception of people like Spooge, Fred, Francis, etc.. the list goes on with professionals, I think quite a few people here are my age or somewheres around there (19), and will eventually be getting jobs where we need to buy Photoshop.

I think if we got enough people on this board (there's quite a few, heh) to email Adobe, telling them we very much support their products, but it would be very helpful if they lowered their prices, or produced a 'lite' version of Photoshop for people to learn with. And I'm not talking about MS-Paint.

To further improvise, a demonstration of history would show that this is a proven way to sell things. Adobe is seriously hurting themselves by offering what was once a high-end product (which is no longer) for a price few beginners can afford. This would also in effect, cut down their problems with piracy. Go to any warez site, and you'll see an Adobe product listed at least 10 times, in between all the porn.

Just a thought I had. If we acted together, it might help them change things.


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/Aq
[email protected]

[Rinaldo]

Adobe do a lite version but it's pretty crap. one undo, no history etc. got it with my digicam. never really tried to use it because of the limmited undos. might be ok for painting if you're not sloppy (like me).
Adobe suck full stop. Adobe Australia recently put up all the prices just before we got smacked with GST. then add %10 And I'm paying a lot extra. Grrrrrrrr..........
Sufice to say I'm not holding my breath aabout any price reductions.


DDoes anyone use CorelDraw. I couldn't find the ability to pick colours from the canvas when using the brush (Alt+ left click in PS)
Anyone know a workaround. I simply cannot do without this feature, but was considering the app.

[Worthy]

when I worked for Nichimen Graphics, we were really happy someone cracked Mirai..only because yeah..it meant more people would be using our software..and considering 3ds Max was our biggest competitor..then of course we needed as many users as possible. The same went for Nendo..though that was a bit easier to crack I'm sure As for me..I wouldnt make money off of any pirated software I have used...and I have purchased some software and have copied others to learn from..

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3D Sculptor
Viewpoint Digital