GIMP definitely suffers from programmer UI design, but Photoshop isn't much better. Menus nested in menus nested in dialogue boxes, keyboard shortcuts that conflict with every other shortcut on any system still in use today, and of course the assumption that everyone already knows what every button does. It's not quite Blender levels of unintuitive, but there's a reason people take courses just to use the damn program. If it weren't for the branding popularity and the fact Photoshop was one of the first programs of its kind, I don't think it'd ever gain popularity with that terrible kludge of a UI, and that's without the ridiculous price.

Ever since GIMP docked toolbars and windows by default (which also took a few versions in Photoshop) I don't think the interface is that bad anymore, at least not compared to Photoshop.

Photoshop's UI is terrible as well (not defending GIMP). At least for digital painting.

- How to set 'C' key as to open color palette? Surprisingly, you can't do it in Photoshop.

- Photoshop is the only painting app that needs a completely new interface for liquifying, instead of just implementing it as a brush.

- Photoshop's 3D, vector path and animation feature are all abysmal. I guess it's to push you to buy other Adobe software.

Last time I checked ( a few months back) there was a little package of configurations + plugins / skins that were geared towards tweaking GIMP to be more accessible to people who were familiar with Photoshop -

And it wasn’t perfect, but give credit where credit is due, it was better than it’s ever been, it definitely got me close enough to complete a little photo collage project.

Photoshop had a pretty steep learning curve. "Users" had to spend some time getting to know the workflow.

GIMP also has a steep learning curve. But these same "users" turn their noses at spending some time getting to know the workflow.

As someone who is proficient in both, it is not hard to hit similar levels of productivity with GIMP as it is in Photoshop.

I hate this attitude that people have with open source being "user hostile". Stop acting like spoiled children. Why must the software always come to you? Why cant you come to the software?

I think the biggest hurdle is that the shortcuts, ui, and workflows all feel different for the sake of being different. Why reinvent the wheel on it?

I also hate this idea that we aren't allowed to give feedback on open source software. I get it, it's an incredibly thankless thing to do, but feedback of "having to relearn all of this stuff is unpleasant" isn't a problematic thing

It's not that they CAN'T duplicate photoshop, it's that adobe would sue them out of existence if they did.

Gimp is an entirely different league of user hostile. There are intuitive GUIs, unintuitive GUIs, and then there is GIMP.

Everyone says this, but nobody backs it up.

The thing about something like usability is that if, as you say, "everyone" says it's bad, then it is bad.

Or they're propagating a meme.

Because tools should be built for their users, not the other way around.

GIMP is astonishingly bad. I got by for many years with Paint Shop Pro, even through its steady decline after Corel acquired it, but eventually they destroyed it. In desperation I turned to GIMP but it is so bad that I now use Photopea. I would pay for a modern functional equivalent of Paint Shop Pro, but I don't know that it exists.