Low End Mac: Bring Out the GIMP

“GIMP is a bitmap graphics editing application. This in effect
means that unlike, for example, K Illustrator, which produces
graphics according to mathematical principles, GIMP and programs
like it give you a blank canvas on which you can slap around
virtual paint. This kind of application is ideally suited to
photograph manipulation and the creation of website graphics.

“GIMP on Mac OS X is a kludge, because it is effectively a quick
and dirty port of the PPC/Linux version and requires that Mac users
install not only the application but also the X Window system, a
window manager, and the GTK+ toolkit, none of which are otherwise
required for OS X. With PPC/Linux these are all part of your
distribution, as is the GIMP itself.

“GIMP, a Linux stalwart, is perhaps more important to PPC/Linux
users than to their x86 cousins. The Macintosh is a de
facto standard in graphic design, and given Apple’s OS X
strategy alienating owners of older Power Macs, a combination of a
modern Unix-based OS and a professional level graphics application
may well be irresistible to some Mac users…”

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