Give Us One Minute

As my family and friends can attest, I’m a free software junkie. If I hear of some new free software, especially Mac software, it almost always warrants an install and trial period. Some apps are worth my minute, some of them are not and are quickly removed. GUOM will be the place I share my favorite free software picks. I’ll not spend an absorb anent amount of time reviewing the software because that would take more than the minute of time I am asking of your day. I’ll try and offer my favorites on a regular basis so be sure to visit often for updates or consider subscribing to the Free Software category feed.

Remember, I’m a Mac fan boy, so many of my selections will be Mac exclusives. Some, like this one, will be cross-platform. Lastly, I know there are some real geeks out there who will pan some of my selections as old news and they would be correct. My site is for the average folk who may not be as tech savvy as say, the average Digg reader.

My first pick for the new Free Software category is the application I use for my complicated image manipulation needs (as complicated as my needs get that is). When I created this site and needed to modify some of the theme images and create the header and logo images, I loaded up the GIMP. For those of you not familiar with the GIMP, let me share a snippet from the GIMP website.

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

GIMP is one of the first applications I install on all my computers whether it be my Mac, Ubuntu, or Windoze box. No matter which computer I am using at the time, I always have access to a powerful image editor. If you take a look at the screenshot below, you can see that the GIMP includes many of the advanced features that are found in more expensive image manipulation software such as Photoshop.

Select Image for larger view

It would take to much time to discuss and list the features available in the GIMP and I highly recommend that you take a look at the online users manual for more information. My guess is that for the majority of the world dabbling in electronic image manipulation, the GIMP will serve their needs quite nicely and save them a couple hundred bucks in the process. The GIMP is a must download. Give it a minute.

Why it’s worth a minute:

• FREE!
• Cross-platform compatible.  Runs on most major operating systems.
• All the tools most folks will ever need to manipulate their photos and create new images.
• Good selection of online tutorials to get you started.
• GIMPshop from Plastic Bugs takes GIMP and gives it a more Photoshop look and feel for those who want to make the transition from Photoshop to the GIMP. If you’ve never used Photoshop or will probably never use Photoshop, stick to the regular interface.

Why it may not be worth a minute:

• Complicated for the beginning user and requires some time to learn (as does all complicated image manipulation software).
• Requires X11 on a Mac. X11 has to be loaded from the original media that came boxed with your Mac. It is not a part of the default installation. I’m still holding out that the Seashore project (an attempt to bring GIMP to the Mac without the need of X11) will pick up some steam and catch up, but they seem way behind the development curve at the moment.
• Due to the X11 requirement, it seems a bit sluggish on the Mac.

What do you think about the GIMP? Have a good GIMP tip? What do you think of GIMP being our first Free Software selection? Leave a comment and let us know.

Technorati Tags: Free Software, GIMP, Image Manipulation