Confusing websites or confused users?
There are a few people following me as a photographer on social networks, many of those people which I didn't meet yet in real life, some I will never meet. And from time to time I get question, like this one:
Person: Hi Nicu could you indicate a Photoshop free to download ?I realized the main GIMP website may be a bit unfriendly for an end user, since the downloads page is all about installing on Linux from packages, this is why I returned with the Windows link, but how the user is unable to use that page, with a big Installer link, is beyond me, so I stayed silent, making such an user install and run GIMP would result for more annoyances for me in the long run.
Me: you can't get legally a free Photoshop download, it is a proprietary software developed by the Adobe corporation, which don't allow for free use. this is the reason I personally don't use Photoshop bit a Free alternative. GIMP, which can be downloaded at no cost from its makers website: http://gimp.org/
Me: oh, a better download link is probably http://www.gimp.org/windows/
Person: how i could donwload , this site its so crazy
However, I don't understand how the same people are able to find their way on scammers websites, which sell GIMP and other apps as their own, and download from such messes (this particular user didn't try a scam site, but I am sure would not have declared that "crazy").
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Nicu, I believe the real problem is that the page is missing a big colourful button saying "Free Download" and has a loads of text (which isn't advertisement to boot) instead :-D
ReplyDeleteyeah Martin, something like that
ReplyDeleteyou can submit a bug to gimp website :)
ReplyDeleteI agree is quite hard to find the windows download on the site
Many people are twits :) They won't see anything until they are beaten over the head with it repeatedly. Even then they might miss it. These are the people that Windows and Pop music are made for.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, the GIMP website is hard to use. The download link in the navigation is hard to pick out at a glance, and the download button gets lost in the banner. People don't care about the branding, so they skip the banner and get to reading the text (the important bit, or so it should be), thus missing the button.
ReplyDeleteAs for the downloads page itself- it is utterly bizarre. None of the links on the downloads page are actually downloads of the GIMP- instead, you've got a list a commands, some links to FTPs and a list of MD5 sums.
The first- only!- thing you expect on a page called "Downloads" is downloads of the program in question- there's a tonne of stuff on that page, and none of it is that.
The website doesn't even tell you what platforms GIMP is available for- why would I check the footer for links to the Windows download? I've just been to the "Downloads" page, and it ain't there.
I think your supposedly undesirable, problem user was right. That website is crazy.
but those commands are not present on the windows download page: http://www.gimp.org/windows/
ReplyDelete