Ubuntu 23.10 Won't Be Shipping A GIMP 3.0 Snapshot

With Ubuntu 23.10 shipping next month one of the changes expected on the desktop side was using a GIMP 3.0 snapshot for this open-source Adobe Photoshop alternative rather than sticking to the aging GIMP 2.10 series. But now it's been determined that this will not happen and GIMP 2.10 will continue to be used.

GIMP 3.0's stable release will hopefully happen in a number of months -- a release candidate potentially around the end of the year and maybe then seeing GIMP 3.0.0 in the early months of 2024. The idea was to ship a GIMP 2.99 development build with Ubuntu 23.10 given the maturing state, the GTK3 port being completed, and being a nice upgrade over the GIMP 2.10 series. Plus shipping a GIMP 3.0 development release in the Ubuntu 23.10 release would provide a cycle of testing ahead of the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release.

Jeremy Bícha of Canonical who originally made the proposal announced today he wasn't aware of the scope of the major transition when proposing the change. Due to no preparation work having happened yet, they will be sticking to GIMP 2.10.34 for the Ubuntu 23.10 release.

This may also cast some doubt too whether they will be comfortable with a GIMP 3.0 build in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, but then again we'll see what happens on the GIMP 3.0 release front over the next couple of months.