Hello, all. I joined this forum a few weeks ago on the theory that it looked interesting, even though I couldn't read any of the posts. (Thanks for fixing that, BTW. Maybe new people will join, now.) Now I have been catching up reading things.

My reason for joining (besides my interest in maps) is that I have been slowly learning the Gimp, working through tutorials. One thing I have discovered is that the Gimp can function as an excellent tiling application, as well as giving all the additional advantages it gives as a full featured graphics program. I will be posting a separate post here on how to use the Gimp for tiling.

I noticed some discussion about the Gimp vs. Photoshop. I have some clear opinions about which is better, and which you should use, and why.

Photoshop is better. Much better, still, I think, for some things. You should use the Gimp. At least learn it alongside Photoshop, if you can afford the latter. Here's why.

The Gimp is still (and will always be) under development. Anyone can write enhancements to the Gimp, and will, for anything they want to do with it, or enough people want. It will get better, and better. Photoshop will improve, too, but not at the rate Gimp does, because they have a smaller and less stable base of coders. Photoshop has a ten-year-head start. In another ten years, the applications will probably be on a par, and after that, there will be no real need for Photoshop any more. Gimp will do everything Photoshop can. People who make money providing support for Photoshop can do the same providing support for Gimp.

The more people who use Gimp, the more feedback those working on it can be given about what needs to be fixed, and the more ideas for nice features people will come up with. More people will be familiar enough to answer questions, so more people will feel comfortable trying it, and their questions will be answered sooner.

Using Gimp supports it, and supports the idea of free software and open source software, which will in turn drive software advance at a faster rate. By supporting Gimp, you are also making it more likely that a free, high quality program for whatever you need three years down the road will be available, even if it isn't a program which has commercial value.

Adobe, as a corporation, is one of the "Good Guys" in the corporate technological world, and they deserve the money they make on their outstanding products. Without Photoshop, Gimp would not exist, and probably computer memory would not be as cheap as it is since, to a large extent, graphics created the market to make that research worthwhile. However, a scientific sharing of software technology will advance our capabilities far faster than a profit motive can. That benefits everyone.