"GIMP everywhere" project

At present we already have portable/bundled versions of several image editing tools, which can be useed to create a “use everywhere”, full-inclusive image editing package.

The idea I have is to create a package that can be copied into a memory stick, and which contains portable versions of GIMP, DT, RT and PhF for Linux, Windows and OSX.

One could then plug the memory stick in any computer and start processing images with GIMP, including RAWs, without installing any additional software.

As a proof-of-concept, I have created a first .zip package with Linux and OSX software, as well as two helper scripts for starting GIMP under both operating systems. Linux packages are based on AppImages. Note that the McGIMP-CCE version in the package is un-official, I hope that @partha has no problem with this…

What do you think? Would you find this interesting/useful?

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Awesome!

Great idea.

If I am reading this correctly, the idea is to launch GIMP and access the other tools via GIMP. Of course I could be jumping to conclusions!

I think this package might be more broadly used if it presents direct access to the other tools as well (I expect you can fire up any of the tools directly, but that ability shouldn’t be hidden). You can see from the PlayRaw contributions that a large number of people do things entirely in RT or DT without heading into GIMP at all.

“Edit Photos Anywhere”

Yes, this can be achieved as well. It is trivial for the OSX case, where all packages are in the form of bundles, and collected inside a sub-folder.

The reason for having the launcher scripts for GIMP is that they properly set some environment variables so that GIMP can find the rest of the tools…

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Everywhere? Side-loaded into our prospective autonomous vehicles?! Count me in to this future!

Reminds me of AOL CDs and live distros. Good way of sharing GIMP, DT, RT and PF to the masses.

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@Carmelo_DrRaw
No problems on my side. :slight_smile:

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Speaking of live distros, it is possible that someone might consider monetizing the package or suite. This can be a touchy subject due to mixed licensing, linked libraries, developer wishes, opinions, etc. Thoughts?

It’d be nice if everyone got paid, but it is complicated (see the recent krita tax debacle) and I don’t think that anyone is doing this with the idea of getting paid. Some projects, like darktable, don’t even accept donations.

I am mostly referring to third parties, and people wanting to recoup costs from distribution. It can be a can of worms from numerous examples in the past. What I am suggesting is that we should think about this and be transparent and concise about best practices.

It’s free software, therefore the developers gave you the explicit permission to bundle and sell it already. No need to ask again.

Good to know. I guess the problem only arises when a developer makes a mistake in including a package with dubious licensing. Still, stating licenses and attribution of everything bundled can be a pain. Of course, this is just from my point of view as an observer.

At least for Linux, distro packagers tend to keep an eye on licenses.

To be honest, I have not considered the licensing issues, and wether the binary packages can be put together in a single zip file…

Concerning possible monetization of what I am proposing, the whole thing took me less than 10 minutes… the two launcher scripts are extremely trivial, and the rest was just downloaded and unpacked. If somebody wants to sell this, it will have to face the fact that a free version is equally easy to obtain.

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Thanks for the feedback @paperdigits @houz and @Carmelo_DrRaw. Learning something new everyday :slight_smile:.