I think the point being made from a usability pov is that gimp is an advanced image editor with a learning ramp (just like photoshop) not necessarily a tool to present to a new user.

The point about f-spot being on the live cd when there are no pictures to manage is valid if you only use the live cd only as a live cd. This is not how the Ubuntu live cd works. What you see is what’s installed, so you must have a sane set of applications for desktop use (assuming that not everyone with access to a cd also has access to the net).

f-spot is about photo management, gimp is about image editing. The two pieces of software don’t inhabit the same space and photo management is the more entry level/user friendly/useful app for most people. Of all the people I’ve installed Ubuntu for a full none of them use the Gimp (to my knowledge). They are just normal computer users, not power users or graphic designers.

I think the best argument for gimp being on the live cd is that it is one of the most complete, fully featured and powerful image editors around. That’s the kind of thing that should be promoted because, even if people don’t use it, they can be impressed by it and therefore impressed with Ubuntu.

Besides, they are talking about removing the gimp doc and leaving the gimp on the live cd (unless space becomes much tighter).

The info about the guy coming from Microsoft is interesting. It’s certainly a cause for concern when people promote technology that might be considered related to their previous employer, as has happened in the BBC. That said, I don’t think that everyone who has ever worked for Microsoft is by default tainted. There are good people in any company, irrespective of the directions of the management. Maybe the fact that he’s not at Microsoft anymore is more indicative of where his allegiances lie.

I think that f-spot, taking out the mono element, can survive on it’s features and usefulness. It’s the only reason I have mono installed and with solang coming along I hope that I’ll be deleting mono soonish.

Jo Shields claims in regard to mono’s speed are interesting and if he had not suggested it was 1,000 times faster than python it might be worth looking at. I do know, and I’m not a python programmer, that there is ongoing work on making python very fast and I think google is supporting some of this work. Strangely I’ve found a lot of Jo Shields written comments on this site much more coherent than the recent ones I’ve read on Linux Today and the Ubuntu Forum.