this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Man, after decades, why does GIMP still have a marketing problem?
Just visit https://www.gimp.org/ and compare it to https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop.html
Just assume both did exactly the same thing and cost the exact same amount (free or otherwise). Which would you choose based on their website?
Why does GIMP (and pretty much all FOSS) have to be so secretive about their product? Why no screenshots? Why not showcase the software on their website?
It's so damn frustrating that every FOSS app appears to be command line software, or assumed that the user knows everything about it already.
Devs, you might have a killer piece of software, but screenshots go a long way to help with gaining interest and adoption.
You're welcome to contribute your experties.
I wish I could, but this is a systemic problem, not a problem with one individual project.
Is the mindset that anyone looking for open source, FOSS, or Linux stuff is already tech-savvy enough to know exactly what they are looking for based solely on a text description?
I think it's more so that the kind of people contributing to these projects are on balance not that interested in doing the marketing work.
Do the operating systems the contributors use not have a screenshot function?
I mean, seriously, simply highlighting a few features would make a massive difference.
I speak for all projects, not just GIMP.
These projects are run by volunteers, they don't have the unlimited budget for designers that Adobe does. And to be honest, it kinda seems like you're just criticizing them for no good reason. Have you personally designed and built a website that doesn't suck?
A few screenshots would be nice. Not asking them to make a high-production video intro shot on a cruise ship with RED cameras and featuring an A-list celeb.
On the contrary. I want to see them reach a wider audience. I want to see FOSS, Linux, and other open-source projects become more accessible and widely available. For me, the way many of these projects present themselves is like gatekeeping to keep people away.
Yes, but I won't doxx myself, so there's no proof I can give you.
Regardless, as a user and someone who wants to see open-source projects succeed, my comment should only be taken as constructive criticism.
then contribute, it's called "open source" for a reason or at least raise an issue where the maintainers can see? Not on some random link aggregation platform about an announcement?
Contributing is exactly what he is doing. You dont have to make a PR to contribute to a project, he is trying to bring awareness to an issue he is passionate about. Him sparking the conversation can make waves much larger than he can manage by doing the screenshot marketing for projects himself one at a time. There are way too many projects for one person acting alone to make a real dent.
Contributing doesn't happen on Lemmy lol
idk, he got those words into atleast 200 peoples heads from here, and probably many more that didn't vote on it. I would say getting that many people to think about it is pretty good for the couple minutes it took to write that comment down.
200 people that aren't contributing. They actually have a page on their site encouraging people to get involved in the site design: https://developer.gimp.org/core/wgo/
How do you contribute when there's the Wikipedia effect?
IF YOU HAVE EXPERTISE, THEN CONTRIBUTE, DAMMIT: https://developer.gimp.org/core/wgo/
They don't need somebody to tell them their site sucks. They need somebody to HELP them make it better, to DO the work that you seem to be implying is very easy! They're literally begging for it on their website.
It's like you need high-level programming training to even understand how to contribute to their project. Where's the "Edit" button, for example?
I've contributed dozens of hours to other projects (namely OpenStreetMap), but it's DEAD SIMPLE to contribute there.
is taking a screenshot that hard?
presses screenshot button
Ah yes, it's a good thing that the only skill required to make a nice website is taking a screenshot
Not criticizing the website design. I don't expect them to have an expensive flashy website. I am criticizing you for equating the snipping tool with having an unlimited budget for designers like adobe does. It does not take a team of designers to add a screenshot to your website showcasing a feature.