New User FAQ
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There are a number of questions that arise on the GIMP User Mailing List quite frequently. Often these questions are not even about getting help with using the GIMP yet take up much of the discussion. Instead of rehashing those discussions repeatedly, it helps to have an FAQ that addresses these questions. You should also see the FAQ on the wiki.
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Q. Why is it called "GIMP"? Don't you know what that really means?
A. Yes, we know. "GIMP" is an acronym for "GNU Image Manipulation Program". It's an unfortunately acronym, but that's just the way the world works sometimes. The developers are quite aware of the other meaning of gimp. In fact, there was quite a discussion about this when the program was born (also see the official history), which was not long after the release of the movie Pulp Fiction, which introduced a much wider audience to that other meaning. Nevertheless, there is no plan or desire to change the acronym nor is there now nor has there ever been any intent to offend anyone with that name.
Q. What is GimpShop and why don't GIMP developers support it?
A. GimpShop is a fork of GIMP done by a developer who wanted a more Photoshop like interface. While the intent might (arguably) have been good, the implementation was not, from both a technical and a social point of view. The developer of GimpShop has not offered to work with the GIMP developers to implement changes. The GimpShop version is broke with respect to internationalization. The two projects are therefore not related and the GIMP developers do not support GimpShop since GimpShop does not support GIMP. For more information, see the GIMP Wiki page related to GimpShop.
If you need help with GimpShop you should check with where you acquired that package. The GIMP community does not provide support for GimpShop.
Q. Will Ubuntu support GIMP 2.4? What about other Linux distributions?
Ubuntu's Feisty distribution (it's latest official release at the time of this writing) will not. However, the developmental branch known as Gutsy already does.
When GIMP 2.4 is released it will depend on a very recent version of the GTK+ libraries, specifically any release from 2.10.13 or later. This version of GTK+ is probably not in any distribution (Red Hat/Fedora, Ubuntu, SuSE, etc.) released in or before mid 2007. Most distributions are probably using a version of the 2.8.x series so you'll either need to upgrade your distribution (assuming a version of 2.10.13 or later is available) or compile an appropriate version of the GTK+ library for use with GIMP 2.4. The same holds true for Windows and Mac users.
