Inkscape 1.0 Alpha Released For This Leading Open-Source Vector Graphics Program

[Naib]

Inkscape is alpha stage software? Who knew! It's been solid whenever I've used it

feature.major.minor

Feature list is embodied in a roadmap and there is a clear roadmap to reach what is classified as v1.0.0 . To be feature complete is a long journey with many stops on the way. At each MAJOR step a release is made with alpha and beta version before an #.M.0 is released.

So up until now Inkscape hasn't been "alpha stage", it has been on a path of reaching full feature list. At any point they could have reduced the scope of the roadmap to hit "v1" sooner and in fact what happened was sort of the reverse. I have been using this since v0.3.x and <3 the software (daily use it). Suddenly they reach v0.5.x and the next release was in the 90's because they had defined a featureset that was reasonable for v1.0. One of the major ones was GTK3 and there have been quite a number of apha's attempting gtk3 usage (I first tried with 0.90.1 gtk3 test) and it was broken as.

I tried this release today on my windows machine and it is working well.

[caligula]

Still I think 50% of the audience only accepts Web 2.0 javascript apps these days. I know quite many who switched from Inkscape to draw.io. Web 2.0 will even support Wacom tablets when JS USB drivers begin to appear.

[cybertraveler]

Still I think 50% of the audience only accepts Web 2.0 javascript apps these days. I know quite many who switched from Inkscape to draw.io. Web 2.0 will even support Wacom tablets when JS USB drivers begin to appear.

Wow. I just checked out draw.io. It's incredible. Surprisingly, the GUI is responsive on my old system. Nicely documented. It has a nice set of shapes to work with. It's very easy to bind text to the centre of objects; something which is a bit more awkward in Inkscape.

The main drawbacks I can see over Inkscape are:

• It looks more simplistic than Inkscape. Less features.
• No extension system.
• I expect if you tried to deal with a large complex vector diagram in it, it would be slow.
• Your data is not private. You should assume that the app creator can see everything you do and is saving that data. I like the privacy of my local copy of Inkscape.
• Presumably that XML format it works with is proprietary. The software is proprietary also. Not great for digital preservation. I know it has import and export features, but that's not the same as the native file format.
• It has an offline mode, but how reliable is that? People who like to work offline or need to may prefer Inkscape.

Having said all that, I expect draw.io will suffice for the needs of many people.

[caligula]

[/LIST]Having said all that, I expect draw.io will suffice for the needs of many people.

There are similar web based tools for raster graphics. I've seen one Krita clone, but can't remember its name. There are also some specialied vector tools for UML, flowcharts etc.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

Much like GIMP I truly stop caring about 4 years ago when both projects routinely kept moving the goal post on their target listings.

[cybertraveler]

Much like GIMP I truly stop caring about 4 years ago when both projects routinely kept moving the goal post on their target listings.

Have you tried it? It has a much nicer UX than the GIMP IMO. It also starts fast. It's quick and easy to learn and use.

[linner]

It's funny to think that Inkscape is a fork a program called Sodipodi. The Sodipodi author(s) were arrogant dicks that wouldn't listen to their users or even the very people helping make the software better. All they apparently wanted to do was make flag artwork and they thought they were so awesome and knew better than the users. So it was forked in to Inkscape and became something awesome.

Meanwhile you've probably never even heard of Sodipodi because they lost so much support that they discontinued development ages ago. Too bad that didn't happen with GNOME, PulseAudio, or SystemD.

[nivag]

It's funny to think that Inkscape is a fork a program called Sodipodi. The Sodipodi author(s) were arrogant dicks that wouldn't listen to their users or even the very people helping make the software better. All they apparently wanted to do was make flag artwork and they thought they were so awesome and knew better than the users. So it was forked in to Inkscape and became something awesome.

Meanwhile you've probably never even heard of Sodipodi because they lost so much support that they discontinued development ages ago. Too bad that didn't happen with GNOME, PulseAudio, or SystemD.

An enhanced version of GNOME 2 lives on as the mate desktop environment: http://mate-desktop.org/
GNOME 3 is probably best described as 'a Triumph of Fashion over Functionality', I fled from GNOME 3 to mate, via a brief sojourn with xfce, previously I used GNOME 2 almost exclusively. Mate started as a clone of GNOME 2 with all the good bits that the GNOME developers dropped added back, since then it has been extended.

[finalzone]

Too bad that didn't happen with GNOME, PulseAudio, or SystemD.

Careful what you wish because you will regret to say those words. Without the two latter, desktop and server Linux would still live in a stone edge. As for GNOME, the same quote goes both ways including the users themselves.

[prokoudine]

It's funny to think that Inkscape is a fork a program called Sodipodi. The Sodipodi author(s) were arrogant dicks that wouldn't listen to their users or even the very people helping make the software better. All they apparently wanted to do was make flag artwork and they thought they were so awesome and knew better than the users. So it was forked in to Inkscape and became something awesome.

Meanwhile you've probably never even heard of Sodipodi because they lost so much support that they discontinued development ages ago.

It's funny how you are so emotionally incorrect on both accounts

The problem with Lauris was that he was too slow to review patches (I mean, come on, the guy has five kids) and didn't always agree on technical details. So it was easier to fork than to sit and wait. The tipping point was when he disabled the website to protest against USA's military action abroad.

Also, Sodipodi's development isn't discontinued. He still hacks on it from time to time. Latest changes in SVN were from 2017 the last time I checked.