"GIMP?? Like the suit?"
"What suit?"
Then watch them squirm.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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But you're really just admitting that you haven't seen Pulp Fiction, which is a major educational gap.
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It's funny, because I'm not a native speaker and Gimp means.. well.. this software. I only learned what it meant years later.
Same. I knew what gimp suit was much later after I got introduced to GIMP.
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What does it mean?
From Wiktionary:
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A person who is lame due to a crippling of the legs or feet.
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(slang, derogatory) A name-calling word, generally for a person who is perceived to be inept, deficient or peculiar.
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(BDSM) A submissive dressed in a full-body suit of latex or a similar material.
I'm vaguely sure the first two meanings above appeared earlier. ~~Perhaps the name was taken as a nod to ‘geek’ and ‘dweeb’, which were slurs for programmers back before the profession became mainstream.~~ Edit: apparently not: "The software was originally named the General Image Manipulation Program. Kimball and Mattis formed the acronym GIMP by adding the letter G to '-IMP,' inspired by a reference to 'the gimp' in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction."
Somewhat relatedly, Torvalds called his versioning software ‘git’, which is also a derogatory term, a British-specific one at that. (And the original name of Linux was 'Freax'.)
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ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?
What?
Say "what" again. I dare you. I double dare you, motherfucker, say "what" one more god damn time!
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Maybe get in the habit of calling it by it's full name initially. Then it seems like an unfortunate acronym instead of a software made by perverts. Note I'm fairly certain most software is made by perverts, and I'm including myself in that group.
An app that tells you information about video files…just why?
In case you can’t quite see the icon.
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Anyone who tried to bring GIMP into nonprofits and schools dealt with this problem. I cannot explain how many uncomfortable conversations I had with non-technical people.
And the defenders will continue to say GIMP's name is fine and still be shocked of the low adoption rate.
Maybe in America? I can tell you in most of the world, nobody would even think to give a fuck about the name, it doesn't mean anything. The word "gimp" isn't even popular enough.
This sounds like some weird copium: surely the app would take off and replace Photoshop long ago, if they just changed that damn name! There was one fork that thought that, with a different name, died shortly after creation. Because in reality nobody cares about the name.
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The first time I heard the name I thought "Why would you admit, in the name, that your software is gimped?"
Naming stuff is a significant problem in the open-source community (not to say closed source has a monopoly on good names, bad names seems to be a thing these days).
Thing is if OSS wants to compete, having a meaningful name will go a long way to getting regular users in board.
That's the whole point though: FOSS software originally doesn't want to compete. There's no point in maximizing market share when you give away your software for free.
That's why the devs call it Gimp, Freax, Gnu, Slackware or the Kool Desktop Environment. They're hobbyist projects by nature, and got big because they're useful, not due to marketing. And that's what I love about them.
I wish more software (and products in general) were made and named like that.
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A coworker of mine likes to say that there are three major problems in software development: naming things and off-by-one errors.
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Just pronounce it "JIMP" and watch the .gif pronounciation debate light up once again!
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And then along came Microsoft with the Zune and decided to have like this neat Nearby Share feature so you could like...share a song with a friend and their Zune - and called the feature "Squirting".
I feel like a small drawback of (linux) open source is that everything is made by devs.
Sometimes I feel like a graphic designer or a marketing person might offer some really basic but solid advice... Like "don't name your app Gimp."
Discord is a terrible name for communication software, unless it's for arguments and disinformation.
Twitter. Not tweeter (which would make a bit more sense), but I suppose it's from "twit", another insult.
Git, also an insult. And then let's call sites GitHub and GitLab.
Names like iPad, ThinkPad, AnythingPad were all criticized for sounding like feminine hygiene products.
Most sites have a FAQ section, which non-native English speakers often read as "fuckyou".
And in russian-speaking countries "eBay" sounds vulgar to begin with.
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maybe just say the G.I.M.P. or something. honestly as a non-english speaker the name Gimp sounds very good lol
That's when you lean in and feign ignorance. Ask the other person to explain what gimp means.
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I bet if it had a better name, more people would use and recommend it.
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Why not rename it to Linux Image Manipulation Program?
Oh, wait...
Ok, then just Image Manipulation Program?
... oh shit.
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what are you gonna do, ask for a refund?
I pronounce it Jimp... for this reason ...and there's precedent with Gif.
"Creatives Opensource Creat Kit" would be better
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I usually just say things like "I used an open source image editing tool. It's like Photoshop, but free!" and then don't elaborate further heh
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Some folks call it Gnu Imp, but i really do wish they would change it.
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You could use Procreate instead. Oh wait a second...
Somebody had a cosmetic fork at one point called Glimpse.
The GIMP devs are downright fucking fascistic about never ever changing the name. Just suggesting it will get you unholy hellflame.
They OBV have never cared. But it's probably one of the larger reasons it's never taken off in business. Just requesting it in some places would get you an HR violation.
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I fixed this by using Krita instead. I used to only use it for vector work but then realized it does most everything GIMP does, too.
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"a program like Photoshop." Or just say Photoshop. Does it really matter to them?
Or: GIMP – it's kinda like Photoshop, but for free.
Why did OP make it so awkward? And it seems there's some implication that there was some opportunity there lost by just mere mention of the program, which seems like a big stretch. No need to be that insecure about the software you're using, the GIMP college garage copypasta isn't real. There's a chance they were just curious, got the answer and that was it...
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I once searched for "gimp mask", as I wanted to learn something about the masking features in the software. Well, as a non-native english speaker, I was quite amused about the results.
Hey, if you can code an excellent program while in a gimp suit...props to you.
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