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I rest my case.

Single-window mode has absolutely nothing at all to do with why the GIMP GUI sucks. Switching to single-window mode is actually worse, not better.

It seems like 80-90% of the complaints regarding GIMP's UI are from people who won't be satisfied with anything but a full Photoshop GUI rip-off (e.g. the way LibreOffice mimics MS Office; Gimphoto and the defunct GIMPshop get close on this front). Their top issue is (well, was) the lack of a single-window mode. To shut them up, given how trivial it was to implement, it was added. I agree with you on the fact that the mode doesn't improve the UX, but it does shut down the #1 complaint, which is something.

What else is (independently) bad about the UI? I started my graphics career on Paint Shop Pro (a plugin-compatible Photoshop knock-off that I actually preferred due to better use of the right mouse button) and was able to seamlessly upgrade to Photoshop given the similar UI. GIMP therefore had a steep learning curve for me, but I have grown to prefer it over time (though I still have to hold back from certain ~hard-wired PSP keyboard shortcuts).

I think the real issue here is merely that GIMP is not a Photoshop clone and image professionals aren't as proficient with computers as professionals of other industries that spend similar amounts of time on computers. They took a very long time (running through tutorials and perhaps paid classes) to learn Photoshop, and there are no equivalents for GIMP (at least, not with the same polish, which these users need), not to mention the fact that it's a serious time (and often monetary) commitment. The only solutions for these uesrs are to make GIMP bi-modal (GIMPshop mode) or to both improve overall computer proficiency (which is happening over time anyway) and create highly polished tutorials and professional courses on GIMP.

Even then, GIMP would still need to absorb (or better partner with) the features currently relegated to the Separate+ and PSPI plugins.

As I've said elsewhere in this article's comments, GIMP is not really professional-grade, it's just close enough for people to make the comparison. LibreOffice has commercial backing, as does the Linux kernel, as does WINE. Perhaps what GIMP "needs" is a commercial backer, that implements new features within a non-free plugin suite (and/or a fork that somehow gets around the GPL) and expands GIMP's base to maintain compatibility, even slowly trickling their commercial features into GIMP over time so as to merely represent what the Free Software version will get in a release or two.

ATTACK INFORMATION

Event: Jokela High School Massacre.
Targets: Jokelan Lukio (High School Of Jokela), students and faculty, society, humanity, human race.
Date: 11/7/2007.
Attack Type: Mass murder, political terrorism (altough I choosed the school as target, my motives for the attack are political and much much deeper and therefore I dont want this to be called only as school shooting).
Location: Jokela, Tuusula, Finland.
Perpetrators name: Pekka-Eric Auvinen (aka NaturalSelector89, Natural Selector, Sturmgeist89 and Sturmgeist). I also use pseydonym Eric von Auffoin internationally.
Weapons: Semi-automatic .22 Sig Sauer Mosquito pistol.

Yeah, but Dante and Shakespeare spent their time writing or with their friends or families. This dude spent his time alone taking pictures of himself aiming his gun into a camera wearing a 'Humanity is Overrated' T shirt with various blank expressions -

http://zami.pp.fi/jokela/Natural%20Selector%203.png Mirror

The shooter left a few documents (including a 'manifesto', a video of him shooting his 0.22 pistol in the woods and picture of himself) open to the public;
Freaky stuff....

there's plenty of democracy and freedom in the world that is not a result of American military aggression.

And plenty of democracy and freedom in the world despite American intervention. And even more that didn't survive 'the advancement of democracy and freedom' via Military Advisor. Chile, 1973, for example? Or Nicaragua, 1984?

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