Official Off-Topic Thread

[Rydin]

Yeah, I'm going to pay 300 dollars to pixel.....I'm real dedicated, huh?

The truth is that I need it for school.  And it's the education version, so it was cheaper than usual.



And if I wasn't so indolent, I would probably just find it online.

[shaheen]

eh, I have compared Photoshop and GIMP, and overall  I find Photoshop to be a lot better

In what way?

It may be just a tad less user-friendly compared to Photoshop, but I'd say it's just as qualified for creating digital paintings and illustrations.

[sharprm]

You never know whether software companies might crack down on piracy one day. Right now, if you have a pirated version of windows they can detect that when you try to get an update and stop you from getting an update (friend had laptop from asia). I think there was a court case about a college getting fined because music was being exchanged over its network. My point is piracy seemed okay when there was no way to get caught, but i think know it is easy because your computers are connected to the internet and the programs can send information without your permission (correct me if im wrong). In other words, buying software might be better than piracy one day (plus u are feeding the
programmers families).

[rabidbaboy]

Rydin, is that excitement, rage, or are you just hungry?

Well, kudos for you I guess.

[Jamie]

Right now, if you have a pirated version of windows they can detect that when you try to get an update and stop you from getting an update (friend had laptop from asia).

Most pirate version's have it removed or have been patched so that it pass's all online check's and download update's, it's really not hard at all.

(Who even want's windows update's anyway?  )

[Malor]

eh, I have compared Photoshop and GIMP, and overall  I find Photoshop to be a lot better

In what way?

It may be just a tad less user-friendly compared to Photoshop, but I'd say it's just as qualified for creating digital paintings and illustrations.

I found it to be much more user friendly, and much easier to learn the basics with. But, maybe that's just my affection towards photoshop talking, maybe I should attempt to conduct a completely unbiased study...

[Dusty]

The point is though, that a freeware program can pull off the same technology(mainly) as Photoshop. So what justifies the extra $600 for a program when someone else is pulling off the same effort. I don't think user-friendliness is worth $600(or whatever is is).

[AdamAtomic]

I got photoshop 7 a couple years ago for just $200.  It's got everything a pixel artist needs plus the full suite of other adobe tools, and its a legit commercial license!  Ah, the wonders of used/outdated software and ebay.

While I do use promotion for 90% of my pixel art now, until it has layers i do need photoshop for some things still, and the CS series adds very few pixel-useful features at the cost of a lot lower performance and a much higher pricetag.  No thanks!

Photoshop makes a good glue app too.

I've tried GIMP before but the interface is too frustrating and slow for me.

So, to sum up, if you have $300 to spend on art software, full commercial licenses of Photoshop 7 and Pro Motion will get you farther than an academic license of CS3

[baccaman21]

just out of interest... can GIMP read PSD's? or AI files?

[shaheen]

I don't think it can read Illustrator files, but it can read .psd files.

I personally go with the freeware alternative to Illustrator (Inkscape). It does just about as well and works with the .svg file type which can also be opened in the GIMP.

I've tried GIMP before but the interface is too frustrating and slow for me.

After a bit of customization, I've found the interface to be extremely flexible for the GIMP. But, eh. I can understand that it's not gonna work for everyone.