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> "If majority is always right - let's eat shit... millions of flies can't be wrong" - Waldemar Łysiak Measuring software quality based on number of users is s

> "If majority is always right - let's eat shit... millions of flies can't be wrong" - Waldemar Łysiak Measuring software quality based on number of users is such an insane take. Just imagine applying that to other fields. So Pop music charts represent the peak of musical artistry now? When deciding what laptop you gonna buy you google "Most sold laptop" or what? The most healthy food is the one most eaten? People are different. They have different needs, different experience levels, different cultural backgrounds and so much more. There is not that one piece of software that is best for everyone. If a piece of software does not work for you, that is fine. Not everything needs to be for you. For someone else it might be exactly the tool they need. I absolutely get why people dislike using Gimp but I don't get why that means it needs to change for them. Like for me, yeah Gimp annoys me sometimes but we get along, other photo editing programs annoy me more. You might not get much value out of Emacs but even if it is just the best tool ever for four people that is still pretty nice. (Honestly, there are dozens of us, dozens!)

jpc0 3y ago
There is a point where measuring the user base has merit. If I wanted a laptop I would certainly buy the laptop bought by most people with the same needs. For tools like gimp a large user base is beneficial since people wanting to learn how to do photo editing of graphic design will google how to do that and the tools used make a difference, if the majority of users are using Photoshop and Illustrator unfortunately most of thr tutorials and courses will be tought using that and the industry will continue using it. If however your UI/UX isn't abysmal and you can effectively teach first principles using Gimp, courses and tutorials will come and so will the users. There's a reason blender became as popular as it is, it was good enough in the beginning and with more users came more funding and more/better developers and now it wouldn't surprise me if it's the preffered tool in the industry.

jpc0 3y ago

There is a point where measuring the user base has merit. If I wanted a laptop I would certainly buy the laptop bought by most people with the same needs. For tools like gimp a large user base is beneficial since people wanting to learn how to do photo editing of graphic design will google how to do that and the tools used make a difference, if the majority of users are using Photoshop and Illustrator unfortunately most of thr tutorials and courses will be tought using that and the industry will continue using it. If however your UI/UX isn't abysmal and you can effectively teach first principles using Gimp, courses and tutorials will come and so will the users. There's a reason blender became as popular as it is, it was good enough in the beginning and with more users came more funding and more/better developers and now it wouldn't surprise me if it's the preffered tool in the industry.