[CREATE] Pitching a community-funded conference

[Manish Singh]

I feel I have to counter the lies once again. This will be my only mail
to the list on this subject, please direct any replies off list.

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 01:50:31PM +0000, Daniel James wrote:
> Hi Dave,
> 
> > Robin has spent the past few years bad-mouthing the GIMP at every
> > opportunity to film guys (presumably, to create a more favourable
> > impression of CinePaint)
> 
> I don't believe that to be true. I've met Robin in person twice, and 
> interviewed him for this month's Linux Format magazine (issue 104). 
> Robin actually said in the interview that people always ask him why the 
> CinePaint team are mad at the Gimp team, and why they left, but that the 
> truth is that they were never members of the Gimp project.

Robin Rowe is a liar. A flat out liar. The reason there is bad feelings
from GIMP towards CinePaint is because he repeatedly made things up
about the history of FilmGimp and why it was abandoned, and never ever
made any attempt to recant anything once corrected.

That interview on fosdem.org only continues with the lies.

> They picked up an abandoned fork, and only released their own tarballs 
> because no-one ever gave them access to Gimp CVS. I believe the name 
> change came about because people in California are sensitive to 
> disability issues, and they find the name 'gimp' to be seriously 
> offensive. It's not even remotely funny to them.

I live in California. That is total bullshit.
 
> As for creating a more favourable impression, CinePaint serves a 
> different kind of user. You can't advocate using an 8-bit/channel paint 
> app to a user who requires high dynamic range. On the other hand, 
> CinePaint has suffered from having a smaller user base than Gimp, and 
> still isn't very well known among general GNU/Linux users.

It's not popular because it's buggy and crashy. The fact that after
7 years, CinePaint is still unstable and still doesn't have much in
the way of new features beyond the original FilmGimp code, actually
validates the decision to not continue work on a hacked up, ugly
codebase.

> While there may be cultural and political differences between the Gimp 
> and CinePaint teams, I believe this particular rift is long overdue for 
> resolution. I think the free software desktop needs both apps.

With Robin Rowe, it's really only about his ego and not actually making
viable software. It's about being "Project Leader" but not producing
anything of practical use. It's about badmouthing those who do care about
software quality and making things that are useful.

It's rather sad that people fall for the marketing and don't look at the
reality.

-Yosh