For web UI work, I have to agree, Sketch is superior in all the ways that matter. Your output in sketch will look like your out out in the browser, and the way things are designed in sketch lines up nicely with the way things will be built in code.

But it's not Photoshop, and I've seen first hand how designers decry Sketch as inferior, not on its merits, but on the bad habits and false friends that Photoshop offers.

I've personally been on a path to rid myself of Adohe Products for years, and that means trying new things, learning new software and celebrating things that are different to what Adobe offers.

Also, Pixelmator does a great job of picking up the slack. I'm comfortable with the idea that i need two apps to design UIs. Sketch feels so much more focused because it's not dealing with image manipulation, and Pixelmator is so much more performant than Photoshop that I'm constantly reminded just how powerful my Mac actually.

For anyone up there looking for replacements to Adobe software, you won't find anything worthwhile. But if you're willing to consider alternatives, there's a lot of choice.

I was curious about how content-aware fill works, so I did some digging. Photoshop's content-aware fill uses the PatchMatch algorithm, originally developed at Princeton:

http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch....

Does anyone know if Pixelmator is using the same technology, or is it something new?

Is there anything similar that works in Ubuntu?

I do wish there were better alternatives for each and every app in the CC. The only one that's competently matched is Premiere.

Pixelmator is good, but Mac/OSX only. It also doesn't have adjustment layers, meaning that if I want a layer to be black and white, I'd have to open it up separately, desaturate, then import it back in as a new layer, delete the old one and rearrange.

They finally have a 16bit color, and apparently the content aware fill is coming.

Wait, what... where is Premiere matched? I am tied to Windows because of CC. Namely, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects and AME - all Adobe. If Adobe only ported their stuff to linux then I could switch completely. Autodesk already has me covered with Maya and other tools, The Foundry as well, FadeIn is a great alternative to Final Draft (although I bought both)... I only need Adobe CC alternatives, especially Premiere - or AVID to port MediaComposer.

Sony Vegas Pro is decent.

Edius is decent too, not close to MC or Premiere though, but neither Vegas or Edius have Linux versions. Only, close enough, app that is on Linux is Lightworks - yet it is cumbersome to work with.

I'd love to know where the idea came from that Mac OS X has a slash in it somewhere. I've seen Mac/OSX, and I've seen Mac OS/X. I reckon it's probably because of OS/2.

People sometimes call the Playstation 2 the "PS/2" as well, which is all kinds of wrong.

No slashes in OS X!

I think it was being used the same way as people write PC/Windows, or perhaps Unix/Linux.

As I said elsewhere in the thread, I believe that Nuke is a more than capable After Effects replacement - although it's a LOT more expensive.

I wouldn't agree with Premiere being particularly well matched by anything else - what are you thinking of?

Final Cut is what I was thinking of, along with something else that hasn't been mentioned. Avid I think?

I saw your comment yesterday, I already started the trials and I just wanted to say thanks. I'm not a designer myself, so I just assumed that since Adobe was the industry standard, anything else must be much worse; it seems it's not the case anymore.

I'm going to have to see that in person to believe it.

It is like magic, but Adobe demoed (and, I think, shipped) it in Photoshop over four years ago: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/cs5-web-premium-feature-tour/conte..., so the technology does exist.

There is a similar plugin for GIMP, though it is less refined.