TUAW Exclusive: Video of Pixelmator in action

Gruber's definition may be correct by the books, I don't think he's using very tactful word choice. The term vaporware is a negative and pessimistic word and implies more than just that the app hasn't been released. It implies that the app will never be released.

Then you haven't read John Gruber's own definition of the term.

Gruber hasn't done anything wrong. He has a full, clear, linked-to explanation of what he means by 'vaporware'. He defines the term and uses it consistently. Rare thing to find on these internets, that.

I've never heard of "vaporware" as having a positive or neutral connotation. Until now, I've always seen it for projects that are very delayed from it's originally stated release date.

At the end of the video, he Quits Pixelmator but it doesn't ask him if he wants to save his new image! Doh.

Funny how those demos of Core Image based picture editors never show beautiful or creative use of their products... Layer based composition is worth nothing if you don't have good selection tools (and Photoshop CS3 selection tools are so sweet).

The interface is nice though, reminds me of Live Picture...

Guys, you don't have to take the 'vaporware' label one person applied to a piece of software you're interested in as either an insult or too seriously to begin with. Vaporware isn't an insult, it's simply a label to let people know that the product has never shipped. Any company can announce a product and even show off some features, but with software it is deceptively easier to show off features without a shipping product than in, say, the gadget industry.

Loads of companies both big and small have announced a piece of software and never shipped - Duke Nukem Forever, anyone? Google Wired Magazine's yearly Vaporware Awards to get a better (though more humorous) look at the history of some of the more famous vaporware that has (never) come and gone through our industry.

The vaporware isn't an insult or a put-down on the product. It's simply a label our industry needed to develop to let people know that it doesn't officially exist in a shipping form yet. After Pixelmator 1.0 ships, I'm willing to bet Gruber and the rest us will be less likely to call a pre-release 2.0 version as vaporware, since the company is updating an already established product, instead of announcing something completely out of the blue that no one has ever seen.

Answered my own question...
From the tech specs...
"ImageMagick foundation is used as a base of Pixelmator"

Quoted from their site:
"Pixelmator Loves Open Source
Just like your beloved Mac OS X, Pixelmator is also built on open source. It uses a very sophisticated foundation to provide you with the most powerful image editing tools available. More than 15 years of development have gone into Pixelmator."

Is Pixelmator based on the GIMP?
Inquiring minds want to know!

Adobe is a bloated, lumbering dinosaur. They make very good imaging software, but their stranglehold on that space means they have little incentive to lower prices or listen to customers. $60 seems totally reasonable for this class of product, and I'll bet it launches in under a minute too. Pixelmator + Lineform = $140 or so, and you can actually contact the developers personally. The current trend of cheap, high quality graphics and animation software is a breath of fresh air, and Apple deserves a lot of credit for making the enabling technologies available.

Rik,

Off topic somewhat, of course, but IMO Lightroom is the way to go. I have used both extensively (LR during its entire beta period) and LR got the nod from me. I am a pro designer/photographer, by the way.