GIMP 3.0 Enters String Freeze, Inching Closer To Release

[You-]

here we have a problem because GTK/Gnome devs have dropped the support for macos and windows...

Totally incorrect... gtk4 even has a newly rewritten backend got macOS which should be far superior to what existed before.

people report that develop against upstream GTK/gnome is maybe no fun.

That might have been the case 10 years ago, but since the release of gtk4, there have been so many new developers targeting gnome that the evidence states the case is otherwise - developers enjoy targeting and developing for gnome.

[You-]

String freeze? So they don't accept any new strings?

The bugs they are aware of wont change any text/labels and they want to give atleast a month to translators to update the translations in readiness for gimp 3.0 (though they will likely still be in rc phase in a month). A lot of translators may have stuck to the 2,10 branch, so more work than usual may be required to get up to date.

[ALRBP]

> transitioning away from Python 2 to Python 3
WHAT ???!!!
I mean, how can that not be already done ?!
Python 2 is 4 years unsupported !
15 years obsolete !

[StarterX4]

Nice, then GIMP 4 development will start and get released when GTK 6 is released

They could eventually skip the pure GTK 4 release and proceed to the further major version instead

[F.Ultra]

They can find sponsors. Let me find some thread about it which clarifies what's the main problem.

UPDATE:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/10373

Just read through this. For me it's clear Gimp has a major organizational problem that makes it so slow, but its developers don't consider it a problem in the first place. So I don't expect it to improve in the sense of pace of development unless maintainers will decide something needs to change.

Ok so I read through that issue and still cannot fathom where you deduced this idea. The only potential comment in this link that I can even think of coming close was this one:

As you seem to guess (with the emphatic "If"), we don't want "users" or "market share" or anything of the sort. We are happy to share our work with everyone, and I personally believe that the only sane condition for software is to be Free Software and also I like that anyone has access to professional-level software. Other than this, we are not chasing after users. This is the big difference between some company (or similar) which thrives in market share and a community of people doing together something they love.

And if that post is what triggered you then IMHO that post does not at all mean what you think it does. If it was any other comment instead that I somehow missed to read get the significance of, then please link it directly or quote it so we can at least have some form of idea where this is coming from.

[shmerl]

And if that post is what triggered you then IMHO that post does not at all mean what you think it does. If it was any other comment instead that I somehow missed to read get the significance of, then please link it directly or quote it so we can at least have some form of idea where this is coming from.

Yes, that was part of it. I.e. I understand as "we don't need do things faster (i.e. have more developers) due to being popular / in demand from users to iterate faster, we are good moving as slow as we do". I think the other comment was about donated money sitting somewhere and not being used for actual development.

[hyperchaotic]

Nice, then GIMP 4 development will start and get released when GTK 6 is released

Perhaps but they have rewritten a lot of the old code interfacing with the UI and old custom widgets to use standard GTK stuff. Updating to new GTK versions should be a whole lot easier moving forward.

[Anux]

I'm not sure why so many are eager to get GTK 4, is there something that would benefit Gimp? The last GTK 3 LTS release is from last year and will be supported at least till GTK 5 comes out.

Yes, that was part of it. I.e. I understand as "we don't need do things faster (i.e. have more developers) due to being popular / in demand from users to iterate faster, we are good moving as slow as we do". I think the other comment was about donated money sitting somewhere and not being used for actual development.

Well that quote above just describes non commercial free software development, you need to be really fit in mental gymnastics to read this as "we don't want sponsors".
And if it bothers you, collect money and pay a dev to work on GIMP.

[Malsabku]

Perhaps but they have rewritten a lot of the old code interfacing with the UI and old custom widgets to use standard GTK stuff. Updating to new GTK versions should be a whole lot easier moving forward.

Upgrading from GTK3 from GTK4 seems not easy in reality.

All major DEs (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce, Budgie, Unity) are stuck at GTK3. They haven't even started to touch GTK4. Even several GNOME core apps are still based on GTK3. More developers are leaving GTK instead of switching to GTK4 (PopOS/Cosmic OS, Budgie, Ubuntu). Next year GTK5 will be released and it will be a GNOME-only show.

[Malsabku]

I'm not sure why so many are eager to get GTK 4, is there something that would benefit Gimp? The last GTK 3 LTS release is from last year and will be supported at least till GTK 5 comes out.

GTK4 is Vulkan accelerated and therefore faster.