Features and glossy stuff are great. But if you really want to use this software as a tool, you need to be able to know that it is a well designed tool of good quality.
And that if it breaks, you or someone else has the possibility to fix it. Krita ticks both these boxes, which is rare for an open source program in this field.

So, for me, that makes Krita a tool which becomes difficult to replace, especially after a couple of years working full time with it. I use photoshop as well, which is also difficult to replace, for other reasons.
This erases the word "alternative" when I am referring to either of them.

Concerning bugs, support, general love and hate discussions, I'd like to add this perspective which is easy to overlook:

I recently had an issue with extremely laggy performance while working in a well known image editing software (the elephant in the room). I had a really pressing deadline, and was trying to find a solution online.
Here are two examples from the official support and feedback forums of said software:

https://forums.adobe.com/message/8460421#8460421

And the quote from the next one which I cannot confirm from personal experience, but doesn't seems unlikely.

"You fricking aren't kidding! I'm getting major crashes on Yosemite on Mac and if I don't report it PS doesn't recover the file. Worse yet, when I continued to save often after the crashes I crashed and didn't report and lost hours worth of work that I had multiple saves on?!! What the H is that?!"
https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshop-cc-2015-unresponsive-laggy-slow-super-laggy-scrolling-via-mouse-wheel

These are both 2 years old, but the issues are still there in the newer versions.

I don't want to make any points about the virtue of open source or the good of humanity. Just to thank you guys for creating and maintaining this awesome software, which I think is not a better alternative to anything, because it is something unique.

Well said! I couldn't agree more that Krita is exemplary and uniquely individual. it is wonderful to have recently come to Krita (and Linux) and to find such an active, pleasant and professional program and community. I can paint (as a super-blender, lol) exactly as I used to plus there are further brushes, textures and functions, plus you cannot put a price on the peace of mind that comes from knowing Krita will always work well, is more than able for all levels of creativity, and issues are genuinely solved and questions answered. Wholeheartedly adding my thanks too.

Thanks guys!

Usually, people want Krita to be something else because they see Krita is developing at a rapid pace and they want it to fit their workflow. But we mostly want to look at what users need and how we can extent Krita bit by bit to be a nice painting program.

Another issue we get a lot is that we have several tools for different workflows and that a lot of people complain that those tools are there because they don't have those workflows. So people getting upset at templates, resources, blending modes, dockers, high bit depth functionality, and it is sorta depressing when that happens, because we work hard on that functionality and people act as if we don't know what we're doing.

TheraHedwig wrote:Thanks guys!

Usually, people want Krita to be something else because they see Krita is developing at a rapid pace and they want it to fit their workflow. But we mostly want to look at what users need and how we can extent Krita bit by bit to be a nice painting program.

Another issue we get a lot is that we have several tools for different workflows and that a lot of people complain that those tools are there because they don't have those workflows. So people getting upset at templates, resources, blending modes, dockers, high bit depth functionality, and it is sorta depressing when that happens, because we work hard on that functionality and people act as if we don't know what we're doing.

Great to keep Krita so centred, especially when many other things eg devices, firmwares, etc, frequently change unnecessarily, often for money, and just end up causing unnecessary issues and disrupting work stability for people. And an Aladdin's cave is brilliant; something for everyone, around a strong painting focus. All very reassuring, and your work is genuinely appreciated.

I'm surprised at people complaining about things, but I can only understand their point of view to a degree. Krita is great as a painting app, but for some painters, they don't really see it as an app for just painters only and they'd prefer a program which is 100% focused on painting, and this is a deal breaker to them. Likewise, an app focused on just painting is a deal breaker for me. A lot of people fail to understand needs and why a program may or may not be good for you. Besides, text tool, Krita is fantastic for me as a product designer, and Krita 4.0 Pre Alpha is the best released version from my end . Krita fits my needs, but it could benefit from more rendering speed.

Reptorian wrote:I'm surprised at people complaining about things, but I can only understand their point of view to a degree. Krita is great as a painting app, but for some painters, they don't really see it as an app for just painters only and they'd prefer a program which is 100% focused on painting, and this is a deal breaker to them. Likewise, an app focused on just painting is a deal breaker for me.

You keep repeating this all over the place, but I have never met any "painter who doesn't really see it as an app for just painters only and they'd prefer a program which is 100% focused on painting."

Our vision for Krita hasn't much changed since 2010: http://blog.cberger.net/2010/02/27/krit ... 3-day-1-2/ --

"Krita is a KDE program for sketching and painting, offering an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch by masters.
Fields of painting that Krita explicitly supports are concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering"

This is still relevant, though we've added matte painting and animation since then.

"Modelled on existing real-world painting materials and workflows, Krita supports creative working by getting out of the way and with snappy response."

This needs to be updated: real-world painting materials and workflows turned out to be more or less irrelevant for the artists who use Krita. We probably should have another session working on updating the vision some time next year. But it is vanishingly unlikely that we'll want to start supporting any kind of design workflow, whether for websites or user interfaces, photo manipulation other than what's needed for matte painting or scientific imaging.

boudewijn wrote:[I]t is vanishingly unlikely that we'll want to start supporting any kind of design workflow, whether for websites or user interfaces, photo manipulation other than what's needed for matte painting or scientific imaging.

+1