The Download Squad team got really excited this morning. When we contemplated installing Paint-Mono, we pictured it and GIMP arming themselves with swords, screaming "There can be only one!" We thought there would be an epic battle, and the victor would lop off the other's head in a firestorm of light.Instead, we ended up compiling Mono.
Paint-Mono is a Unix port of Paint.NET. To install, it requires Mono 1.2.6, your favorite flavor of Unix (OSX, BSD, Linux, or Solaris), and a Subversion client. (Here's a little warning: if you're running Ubuntu Gutsy, you don't have the right version of Mono. Deb packages for this version are hard to find, so that most likely means compiling from source. The Mono installer didn't work for us).
So is it a GIMP killer? At this point we'd have to say no. We couldn't get Paint-Mono to compile (even after installing Mono 1.2.6). According to Miguel de Icaza, most of the features in Paint.NET have been ported over to Paint-Mono, with more to come. It might be a nice alternative as it develops, but we'll have to wait and see. Right now, it could have all the features of GIMP and more, but we'd still recommend GIMP to our friends just because they'd actually be able to install it and run it on their Windows, Linux, or even Mac computers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-24-2007 @ 12:00AM
Ronald McDonald said...
I honestly wouldn't ever recommend GIMP to anyone except as a last resort. I don't think I've ever seen a piece of software so far behind its competitors before and sorely lacking in features.
While I can't speak for Macintosh, there is Paint.NET (which as you noted Paint-Mono is based on) for Windows and Krita for Linux systems. Both of those are more robust and/or fluid than GIMP.
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12-24-2007 @ 8:20AM
andy said...
You're an idiot.
GIMP is no less feature complete than Photoshop or Fireworks, and especially Paint-Mono.
12-24-2007 @ 8:18AM
Orbberius said...
GIMP is trash trash trash. Horrible. Paint.NET is much better, so Paint-Mono should follow.
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12-24-2007 @ 3:02PM
Mysterius said...
"Right now, it could have all the features of GIMP and more, but we'd still recommend GIMP to our friends just because they'd actually be able to install it and run it on their Windows, Linux, or even Mac computers."
Well, if you're running Windows, why not just use Paint.NET, which Paint-Mono is based on?
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1-12-2008 @ 6:34PM
Szafranek said...
I tried both Paint.net and GIMP... And i think the one which look like Photoshop or Paint shop pro the most is Paint.Net... Gimp is a good tool but it s really not easy to handle it even with all its features. I would not recommand it at all. The conceptors did not try to make its ergonomy better since the first launching. Multi windows is not something very smart. That s why i think Paint.Mono will be really welcome... For the one who would like a real Photoshop like on Linux there are also a good project called "PIXEL". For $20 u can have a good product which need improvements but i think it has a better chance to challenge Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro than GIMP.
GIMP will always lack by its ergonomy if the conceptors dont change their point of view.
Bye
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1-29-2008 @ 11:45PM
JC said...
For Mono1.2.6 for ubuntu: deb http://debian.meebey.net ./
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