Conclusions

Pinta is genuinely simple, but its use is restricted in practice because it lacks a number of powerful features. The selection tools are unusable for the most part, and not just because they do not support soft edges. The lack of an option for correcting selections is equally problematic. Pinta's controls are far less mature than those of GIMP, so users are often forced to perform additional actions that impede the workflow. However, if you just need something for editing a simple image, Pinta can be fun. Whether you are prepared to install a Mono environment is a totally different story, however.