Ok. No good. I thought I could "dock" these windows to the side of the 'picture'..like Photoshop and every other paint/photo program that I've ever used.

Here's a pic of what I'm talking about...

Hi,
I know its not the original topic but as the thread turn to a discussion about gimp I thougth I would post it here.
While browsing a bit around I just found a plugin for the windows version of GIMP which merges the GIMP windows into one big background window.
I haven't tried it for myself but will do it in a moment.

Here is the link:
http://registry.gimp.org/plugin?id=3892

If it's the one I'm familiar with, it just places a Windows background "plate' behind it. There's supposed to be a GIMP build out there that is more like Photoshop. Most things have been renamed to be consistent with PS naming conventions, although I can't recall if it actually transmogrifies the UI to look like PS.

Yeah there is the so called GimpShop (link: http://plasticbugs.com/ ) I guess you mean that.

However I just tried that plugin I posted above with the GIMP 2.2 version but opening an image does not work anymore.

EDIT #1:
After testing the 3.0-alpha version of the plugin which did not work for me I just tried the 2.1 version.
Unfortunatly this version does not transfer the gimp windows into one big window and is really just a background plate.

EDIT #2:
For everybody who likes GIMP but wants it integrated into one window: Try GIMPshop:
http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294

(Scroll down a bit for a windows version, I'm currently trying out this one: http://www.plasticbugs.com/blogimg/GIMPshop_0.1beta_Setup.exe )

Have you tried Paint.NET? It's definitely a PS looking application. It doesn't have all of the advanced features of either PS or GIMP, but IMHO it features most of the essentials. It probably has a couple to three years before it will be in GIMP territory (version 4.0), but I can pretty much make anything I need, now plus there's lots of plugins in the appropriate forum section. You'll need .NET 2.0 installed, but I think .NET 3.0 is going to be required for the next major version. The developers are well aware of what is missing and are making strides to head in the right direction. I simply can't stand that GIMP UI (it's the Blender of the 2D world ), so I'm throwing my support behind this one.

(I'm doing my best to turn this thread back into a Paint.NET thread. lol, it seems I've been shanghaied. ).

I recently licensed Art Rage 2 for $20. It's a completely different animal all together and is a poor man's Dogwaffle. If you want to paint with natural looking paint, though, it will allow for that most definitely. My fiancee was fascinated by the realistic paint mixing when using different colors of the brush and the palette knife. I kind of just play around doing that too sometimes. It almost seems too real.

Wow Art Rage looks really nice and 20$ is damn cheap.
(link to it: http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html )

I think I'll try out the free version of it.

EDIT:
ArtRage rocks! I will consider to add this to my tool chain, although I'm not an artist, as it is really fun to draw with
Thanks Orange Brat!

No problem. I'm currently trying to get a 6x8 Wacom tablet since I hate painting with a mouse. Take a look at Dogwaffle, too. It's the same kind of "natural" art program but has dozens of more features and animation.

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/

Of course, you'll pay a lot more for the full version, but there are lesser ones that are missing features but still nice. Painting with particles is great (tried it in the PD Pro 4.0 demo).