I once tried to use GIMP and gave up after 2 hours and got the task done in figma in 10 minutes. GIMP is a UX atrocity. The interface is a cluttered mess of meaningless panels and buttons. Worst for me is i'd spend 15 mins googling/reading how to do something, look for the corresponding buttons for 10 minutes, be unable to find them, and later discover they were on a panel that wasn't enabled by default (I didn't even know you had to enable panels; i'd assumed everything that was available was there in front of me). On macOS some panels randomly disappear behind other programs.
It was like using a computer program in your dreams where things don't really have to make sense.
My theory is this is a classic OSS problem where everyone wants to contribute their pet feature but the project lacks discipline and nobody wants to remove, organise, and improve (especially where the latter can be 10x harder and more tedious then the former). This could be an argument for opinionated leaders in OSS projects, because at least they'll say 'no' and do things 'their' way a lot of the time, which is often better than the 'anything goes' philosophy.
Friendly reminder to everyone that https://photopea.com exists. If you are used to Photoshop, then the UI will be quite familiar.
I only need to do somewhat basic stuff these days, so photopea.com is more than enough for me. However, now that I look it has tons of new features. Nothing to install, is ad-sponsored by default, and runs entirely client-side.
IIRC, this is a lone developer, who has previously refused what seemed like lucrative catch & kill acquisition offers.
Here is a post with lots of info:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33334521
It's been like this forever. Always been "photoshop but harder to use".
> I once tried to use GIMP and gave up after 2 hours and got the task done in figma in 10 minutes.
You would have been just as lost, if not more, in Photoshop (if you had never used it before.) You were doing a simple job that should have been done in a simple program.