I use lots of gimp and with time, surely you can get used to it, but generally, it’s not a simple photo editor.
QubesOS is most likely overkill and it’s probably not a good choice for beginners. Try Fedora, Manjaro, Pop OS, Elementary, Mint, Garuda or other more friendly distros. Just avoid plain Ubuntu & it’s flavors. It’s cancer nowadays.
Paint.Net is fully open source.
Subreddit? You high man? Do you need some water? Have you eaten well?
I use lots of gimp and with time, surely you can get used to it, but generally, it’s not a simple photo editor.