Open Source Advent Calendar: Gimp Image Editing Software | Hayes Online

This is the advent calendar for techies. In the fully digital, commercial world, almost everything belongs to a large Internet company. Their software is neither open nor free. Alternatively, there is this small island of an open source world: a program whose code is publicly visible and can be independently scanned for potential vulnerabilities and backdoors. Software that can be freely used, distributed and improved. Often the motive for action is simply the pleasure of doing something useful to society.

Short images of open source projects will be posted online from December 1 to December 24. These are about the respective program functions, pitfalls, history, background and financing. Some projects are backed by an individual, others by a loosely organized community, a tightly managed organization with full-time employees or a consortium. The work is done entirely on a voluntary basis, or is funded through donations, collaborations with Internet companies, government funding, or an open source business model. Regardless of whether it is a single application or a complex ecosystem, whether it is a computer program, an application, or an operating system – the diversity of open source is enormous.

December 13th: Gimp الصور Photo Editing Software

Gimp does not have a formal structure and is loosely supported by a community. One of the main people in the project is a bookseller from Allgäu.

Sheneb Shenab: with GIMP, GNU Image Manipulation software, you can crop holiday images with just a few clicks and little knowledge of graphics. Computer software also enables complex image processing. Gimp is under the GNU GPLv3 License. There is no version for smartphones, and none in development, says Michael Natterer, one of the lead developers.

He cannot provide figures on the distribution. You can’t record it, and it can’t say anything about download numbers. They’ll have quite a bit of informational value anyway, because by default Gimp is an external element mirror servant It was downloaded and delivered independently of the various Linux operating systems as part of the respective software packages. The project assumes that Gimp is widespread.

Nothing official in the background

Almost all open source projects include at least some organizations that accept donations and hold trademark rights. There is absolutely no formal structure in Gimp, as Natterer explains in an online interview with Heise. Society is brought together only by working together. Donates The US GNOME Foundation accepts GIMP. Via Liberapay subscription platform receives the lame Approximately €100 per week out of 160 regular sponsors.

Alternatively, you can donate directly to up to three members of the community In current projects work. Overview Gimp.org lists 371 people who “made Gimp possible”: 323 people contributed code, 15 worked on design and 29 on documentation. However, these are all people who contributed something at some point in their 25-year history, says Natterer. The size of the active community is currently in the low two-digit range.

IRC chat and virtual reality meetings

There is no central contact for the community. Much of communication It works through IRC chat channels. There are also some forums. He plays a special role Pixls.us. The forum moderator, who deals with the intersection of photography and open source software, has also been active on Gimp for a long time. The core community, usually five to ten people, meets once or twice a year. In normal times at least: Natterer complains that the pandemic is also frustrating the Gimp project. These real-world meetings have simply been absent for nearly two years.

mid-nineties

Like many open source software, Gimp started as a university project. It was invented by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis, two computer science students at the University of California, Berkeley. Not in 1995 They advertise Gimp in various newsgroups as a free and paid alternative to Adobe Photoshop.

In February 1995, the first incomplete beta version appeared, which they constantly developed. In June 1998 it was Version 1.0 ready. The show’s parents withdrew from the project shortly before.

“And bang – I was there”

Michael Natterer, who has been with Gimp since the early days, is named one of the lead developers on Gimp. Natterer lives in Wangen im Allgäu in the state of Baden-Württemberg and works as a bookseller.

His career with Gimp also started during his student days. He just used it, caught an error and downloaded the source code according to the tagline “can’t be that hard”: “After hours, the patch was ready and this was my first Gimp hack. On the next semester break I then signed up as a log volunteer ( “Give me something to do”).

The work in the article series is based in part on a “Neustart Kultur” grant from the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, awarded by VG Wort.

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