A lot of mails to this list are complaints. I'd like to compliment the developers on, what has grown to become, my favourite graphics editor. I'm not going to spam the list with URLs, but know that I am a professional illustrator and have been for many years. I have some large clients to boot.

Up until December 2010, I was a Windows user and, by default, a Photoshop user. I noticed that Ubuntu was hitting the mainstream and that it looked like a great (free) alternative to Windows. I managed to learn how to install it as a dual-boot option, and played with it (and Gimp) for a few weeks. I was about to buy a Mac when I fell in love with Ubuntu and its very helpful. I went cold turkey and bought a new PC, installed Ubuntu (and no Windows) and forced myself to learn the ropes as much as possible. Note that, as a creative, this doesn't come easily. (My forte is drawing stuff; not technical stuff.) I then forced myself to learn Gimp. It was a nightmare trying to get the right shortcuts and understand the layers and the different way Gimp works.

It's now seven months later and I've not turned on my old Windows PC. I'm still learning Gimp, but am a lot more accustomed to the shortcuts etc. Gimp COULD handle my Wacom Intuous a lot better (since I can't get the buttons to work, and it's beyond my skills to get them to work) but, as a workaround, I use my keyboard in conjunction with it. Gimp is fast and I especially like that it's modular and not bloated like Photoshop. Adding extensions seems quite easy and I've not had too many hassles there.

A lot of Linux purists hate Ubuntu (Unity) because it's too flashy and whatever else. Were it not flashy, I would have bought a Mac and probably stuck with Photoshop.

I have grown to love Gimp, albeit lacking in features that would certainly parallel it with Photoshop (such as better text tools). That said, I am able to do everything I did in Photoshop, if not faster. Gimp is very underrated and gets a bad wrap unfairly.

Gimp does have its annoyances (which I'll mention in another mail) which should be made better, but I still won't revert to Photoshop. I forced myself to understand the differences and to learn to make my experience better,

Well done. I love Ubuntu and I love Gimp.