this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
987 points (98.3% liked)

Programming Humor

2734 readers
215 users here now

Related Communities !programmerhumor@lemmy.ml !programmer_humor@programming.dev !programmerhumor@kbin.social !programming_horror@programming.dev

Other Programming Communities !programming@beehaw.org !programming@programming.dev !programming@lemmy.ml !programming@kbin.social !learn_programming@programming.dev !functional_programming@programming.dev !embedded_prog@lemmy.ml

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 120 points 1 month ago

slightly worse

Five years later

only slightly better

Five years after that

Incompatible with my walled garden OS of crap

[–] DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.world 101 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I feel like people will give a pass to the shitty elements of Microsoft Office, etc. but then harp on the tiniest issues with open-source software.

Kind of reminds me of a recent election...

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago

It's just like for Windows , but we're so used to the software that we've learned to work around.

When you switch, you are met with productivity loss and learning new quirks, which makes the experience less than stellar.

In today's context, for the vast majority of people, if it isn't easy to use, they won't use it because pretty much every app and software has become plug and play (except niche software that looks like windows 3.1)

[–] CtrlAltDyeet@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

A company I worked for has had such a bad experience with the Microsoft business suite that they actively avoid using any MS products at all costs. They started offboarding a year ago and they STILL haven't managed to get rid of everything

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 99 points 1 month ago (18 children)

Blender is fantastic

GIMP needs a total overhaul by designers. The image processing is fine, plugin ecosystem is good too, but the interface needs to be updated to include concepts that have changed.

For example you can’t add an outline around text, it’s very much a raster editor with layers, when most workflows benefit from vector concepts.

[–] Stern@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Gimp is great for when you need photoshop, but aren't doing it as your job, and don't want to sail the seven seas.

Also, Fwiw when I want to outline text in gimp i select a text path, make a new layer, select from path, expand the selected area 2px, then fill (oh and move the layer behind the text layer). Unike in photoshop where theres like... one step, iirc.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 month ago

Yeah I agree, I used to use it when I was a student who couldn’t afford photoshop and I was able to create some awesome graphics.

Once I got used to photoshop (I used it from CS2 to CS5) I couldn’t get back into GIMP. The hot keys and mental model were just so much better in PS and PS clones.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'd rather use photopea a quadruple time before installing GIMP.
Hell I even use Ps CS2 at work because Adobe unlocked the activation (and Adobe removed the page from the archive. org with the unlock keys) for free.
Great enough for the few graphics I want to do and at home I use properly sailed goods.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 32 points 1 month ago (2 children)

GIMP needs a total overhaul by designers.

Isn't that what GIMP 3.0 is going for? It's not out yet, but it is a big overhaul.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 month ago (9 children)

I’m not sure, but that’s exciting if so

GIMP UI as is hasn’t changed much in 20 years.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I remember GIMPshop being a thing back in the day. It was much easier for me, but it was abandoned ages ago. PhotoGIMP is fine, but it's missing a lot of the QoL stuff that makes Photoshop better.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah

And that’s not to say GIMP is bad software, it’s competing with a design app that’s almost a monopoly worth billions of dollars. That’s a high bar to beat for free.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[–] egrets@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

No, regrettably there won't be a major UI overhaul as part of GIMP 3, it's very much under-the-hood improvements. From what I've seen, the maintainers are very open to a UI overhaul, but they don't have the right contributors to do it in a significant way.

That said, functionality like text outlines aren't really a UI/UX feature in the main.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Krita is also fantastic and better than most closed source drawing software

KiCAD is also getting almost as good as some of the closed source ECAD software and is definitely good enough for small companies not doing flex designs. It is by far the best hobbyist-targeted ECAD

Libre office is perfect now for small companies. It is only missing a couple of small office features. Maybe PowerPoint power users would have a hard time making morph animations

Bitwarden is pretty much the best-in-class password manager for companies too

OBS is the gold standard for streaming

VLC is also the gold standard for media players

Bitwarden is the only one that has SaaS backing and the rest is volunteer driven, but with different funding models.

I hope by 2030 KiCAD and FreeCAD will be much more prolific in the professional space for small companies.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago (4 children)

You can easily add an outline around text in gimp once you learn the process.

Give me a minutes, I'll type it out.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

I know it's doable, but it's just one of those things which is much easier in other editors, and it's a pretty common feature for quick edits like making memes

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (14 replies)
[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 92 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I find the tiny amount of jank comforting

It's like a subtle reminder that you aren't being exploited by a big corporation.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

seriously, really helps learn troubleshooting too, not just throw and error number at you and close.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (5 children)

not just throw and error number at you and close

Lol every Microsoft error I've seen in the last few years has been of the "Oops! Something went wrong!" variety. I would kill for a fucking error number.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

But, this seems to imply that there is no jank in software made by big corporation.

[–] renzev@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Corporate jank has a different flavour to open-source jank.

Corporate jank is like *Download the adobe download update manager in order to download updates for your adobe update manager now free of charge! Just don't forget to activate your adobe download update manager activation license in the adobe activation license activator software"

Open-source jank is like Yeah, it's broken unless you install this specific package or there are three and a half different states that the "brush" tool can have, and the "half" is what you want most of the time or these 5000 lines of logs are not important and can be ignored, except once in a blue moon where a really important critical notice is hidden somewhere in the middle or why are you using the official installer, nobody uses the official installer! Just get it from your package manager!

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 62 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's usually actually the other way around in my experience

Anything that has the label "pro" or "enterprise" suuuuuucks, is badly designed, full of bugs.. take the open source app, and it just works

[–] BigDiction@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There’s just so much more opportunity for feedback, use case stories, and a variety of perspectives in open source development.

Good enterprise development does all those things as well, but there is always a bigger barrier to the user when you have to design behind a curtain.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure it's not lack of user feedback. It's MBAs deciding the user is wrong and unprofitable, therefore better add more tracking and ads.

[–] namarupa@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Exactly. These companies have more feedback than they could ever parse. They only listen if said feedback results in loss of profit.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 55 points 1 month ago

By not requiring an account to use, it's already ten million times better.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Honestly many times it's better. Shoutout VLC, KDE, Linux, qBittorrent, Librewolf, Handbrake, Tenacity, CHIRP, Flipper Zero, and too many more to mention by name.

[–] rarbg@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 month ago
[–] Magnetic_dud@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I always make fun of this with the coworker that I'm training.

"See, the PDF is malformed and crashes the program. But that's normal, this program costs only €700 per year. When it happens, use this free program to open it, and there's no problem"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] drathvedro@lemm.ee 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

An app developed by hobbyists who, if not passionate about it, at least care enough to spend their time developing and contributing to it, even if it's free

vs.

An all-star team of designers and engineers who are bogged down in corporate bureaucracy and do the absolute minimum to maintain their positions, while saving energy to do things that they actually enjoy. Like, oftentimes, it is developing the aforementioned free apps.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

That's because the "all star team of designers and engineers" spent 80% of their time in meetings to keep management up to date with the progress of the project, listen to yet another wild ass idea from marketing and because they adopted a new and fashionable Software Development Processes without understanding the principles behind it so have a daily 1h standup.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If open source is so great, why did Truecrypt get shutdown?

-Sincerely, Your friendly neighborhood FBI agent.

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I can think of very few examples where the paid version is better, usually the reason the masses use the paid version is billion dollar marketing campaigns and adopted standards.

More relevant perhaps, corporations are not incentivized to make a good app they are incentivized to be just better than the free version so that enough people don’t switch that the free version becomes the default version, keeping open source code perpetually one step behind because they can always dump 10 billion dollars into improving a minor annoyance as long as it keeps their product the standard de facto product.

[–] ThePantser@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (8 children)

I like to point out Home Assistant, it's FOSS and better than anything else. Nothing else comes close not even Google home and they are a trillion dollar company.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] _____@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

corporations can create good applications and tooling, they also create toxic dark pattern applications

open source devs can create air tight software or they can make some dingus word alternatives that just doesn't work at all

I love open source but there are certainly some bad programs out there (for free though)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Is it? I pretty much only use open source stuff and all other proprietary alternatives I know are shitty

[–] MethodicalSpark@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Open source CAD software is basically useless. As someone who has tried every few years to use open source alternatives for personal projects, I always end up paying for an AutoCAD or Fusion 360 license.

My professional background has always been higher end software like Siemens NX, Solidworks, Inventor, & AutoCAD.

LibreCAD is the closest I ever got to something that seemed useful for 2D. I hate FreeCAD, QCAD, BRL-CAD, etc. Many open source projects waste so much time to do simple tasks and buck standard methodologies for their own spin on how they think you should design.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago

The profit motive is why they throw so much money at it. I like FOSS better too but these differences can't easily be separated.

[–] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

It probably isn't.

load more comments
view more: next ›