Okay so it's no photoshop, but it's really good to see a non-X11 version of GIMP. Once they iron out the more serious bugs this will be a pretty serious app I can imagine. The reliance on X11 has hampered the adoption of both GIMP and OpenOffice for a long time now, it's good to see work being done on both of them.

The GUI is decent; it's not what you'd want every "mac app" to look like, and has a few rough edges, but it's far better than the X11 versions I've seen. It has a native Mac menu-bar and decent tools, however you can tell that they weren't originally intended for MacOS. If it gives you any scope, it doesn't use the native Mac cursor when you drag the cursor into a GIMP window, I think this is a little bit of a turn-off, but also allows for custom cursors that enhance the functionality of the app (things like pant-brush shaped cursors… so I guess it's neat).

The first load is sluggish, but after that it's fast. I'm having crashes when using some effects… but it's an "r1" candidate so such is life I guess… we're not dealing with a build that's been subjected to much QA, they've simply got it working, and it works to the stage where you can actually make something using it, however you'll want to be saving your work regularly.

I suggest giving it a go if you're not the type who sits there rubbing your beard and bashing products that are still in development. Of course it doesn't meet the standards of Photoshop, and the GUI is a little rough, but it's free, and it's worth giving a go if you like fiddling and have realistic expectations. I saw some guy chucking a tantrum in another forum because it doesn't support 48-bit images… then I remembered my screen is only 24-bit. So… I've seen some bashing of it, but mainly from 2 groups:

1) Those who say "no it's not native, look at the GUI!"… they are ill-informed, because the big hurdle here is that it is native… it doesn't require X11.

2) The wannabe technophiles… doesn't support 48-bit images… people who need to realise that if you invest in a $5000 scanner in order to scan 48-bit images, then they should probably use photoshop as it's a bit of a niche market.