Have now downloaded both the MAC and Windows 2.8RCs: shall play and see how I go.

Thanks.

@Terry Pinfold: Can confirm this on Ubuntu Linux. Can you open a bug for GIMP on http://bugzilla.gnome.org/?

The tiff plugin is not working. I can not open or save tiff files in GIMP 2.80-rc1. These files open fine in GIMP 2.7.5 so I'm sure it is only a minor glitch. How do we let the developers know about the bug?

A new version of the Windows istaller - with Glib 2.30.2 instead of 2.32.0 - is currently being uploaded.

In this case, it is recommended to uninstall the previous 2.8.0-rc1 installer, otherwise the Glib DLL won't be overwritten (the installer check if an existing file is newer).

This Windows version is very unstable yet (crashes randomly) and not an official release. Seems like Windows users still have to wait... (or compile themselves or use VirtualBox)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/files/GIMP%20%2B%20GTK%2B%20%28development%20rel.%29/GIMP%202.8.0-rc1/

Version for Windows is available:)

My only comment to Bob would be pay out the money for Photoshop or join the generous team of developers who volunteer there time to develop the fabulous program GIMP. Thanks for the great job developing the program. I own a legal version of Photoshop CS4(how rare... since most users pirate Photoshop)but use GIMP for 99.99% of my images. Looking at your road map for future development I look forward to 16 bit image handling and non-destructive editing but I will wait patiently considering the price I pay for GIMP.

will the mixbrush be disponible on 2.8 ? where can I found a downloable executable for 2.8 RC ? T_T i cannot compile, and i cant wait to try it

Great news! Can't wait for Gimp 2.8, it has some features I've been craving for for a long time.

Bob, seems like you have some connections to people who work with FITS images. Requests for (better) support of that image file format have been very rare.

So maybe you've got some people among your contacts who work with FITS and would like to work on the fits plug-in for GIMP?

See http://git.gnome.org/browse/gimp/tree/plug-ins/file-fits

Or, preferably, they could work on a GEGL op for loading and saving the format.

Libre Office started a foundation rather quickly. Let's start one next month, after Gimp 2.8 is released. Get the ball rolling!. As for manpower, LibreOffice as well as Blender have allot of manpower. RedHat just donated $100,000 to open source. So many of these large companies should be informed of the desperate need of resources that one of the core apps needs for Linux adoption on the desktop and funding the Gimp or Libre-Graphics Foundation (call it what you will) would be beneficial to further adoption in the open-source graphics area, particularly with professionals.

Bob:
"Gimp is not good enough. I've stated my case. We need a Gimp Foundation, or a fork of Gimp that is supported by a foundation."

Agree that Gimp needs a foundation. For the forks, several were made in the past and went nowhere. Did you know one of Cinepaint developers participated to GEGL creation and were the one that completely froze its development? Now, the entire development to convert the entire engine to GEGL resumed and Gimp developers learned the hard lesson.

Remember Adobe has tremendous amount of manpower than Gimp which give a former advantage in term of fast paced development.

After Gimp 2.8, development should be faster with a adoption of Gnome like style.

So will Gimp 2.8 solve Chandra's ability to be completely opensource. Or will they still need to use Photoshop?.

Quote: " Although GIMP is perfectly capable of reading FITS files, it is extremely limited in its control over image scaling."

Gimp and Astro Imaging from Chandra web site. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/openFITS/overview.html
Quote:
"The industry standard software for processing & imaging work of this nature is Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop comes in a variety of "flavors" priced according to the needs of the user and is available for both Windows and Mac (unfortunately, not Linux). While we would like to maintain an open source workflow in the openFITS project, there are certain advantages to using Photoshop and the FITSLiberator plugin that will make this difficult. For the first tutorial, and anywhere else that is applicable, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) will be used as this is completely open source, available for all platforms, and will be suitable for the more straightforward images. Although GIMP is perfectly capable of reading FITS files, it is extremely limited in its control over image scaling. As the difficulty level of the images increases, this limitation will force the use of Photoshop with the FITSLiberator plugin developed in conjunction with ESA/ESO and NASA. This plugin gives the user complete control over the appearance of data before it is projected to the screen and most of the scaling information is lost."
This is a good reason for the need to have a foundation with many contributors and support, like Libre-Office has. Professional Astronomers use Linux platforms allot, why this limitation in Gimp. Unacceptable!!.

i don't meet any astro images
but gimp foundation rock!!!

Most amateur and professional astronomers who do astrophotography not just Hubble photos do not feel that Gimp is sufficient. Most have never heard of Cinepaint, which is NOT supported very well, and Photivo lacks layers and masks. Can Photivo open FITS format files?. Open up any Astronomy magazine, or go to any website, that deals with image-editing today, and for "advanced image editing", Gimp is not good enough. I've stated my case. We need a Gimp Foundation, or a fork of Gimp that is supported by a foundation. Like the path Libre-Office went when OpenOffice didn't didn't fit the bill. Do we still suffer from the same ideology problems from when Cinepaint forked from Gimp. Lack of professional features. Will Photoshop come to Linux, before Gimp gets professional features or vice versa. Answer me that?

Bob,
you can use Cinepaint with no problems for your astro images, or Photivo.

@Bob: If you work on a daily basis with Hubble images, I can see your need for astro-imaging. Most of us don't and we are very happy with what the Gimp 2.8 will give us for no money, that Photoshop also gives us but for AUD $1648.00!

Until Gimp equals or exceeds Photoshop in astro-imaging. Check out the Hubble images created with Photoshop and Fits Liberator (Windows and Mac only), which has now become the "standard". As a Linux "only" user I don't give a hoot about Gimp 2.8, and it's 8 bit only. I want "professional" industry standard tools for Linux, not good enough tools for just basic imaging that are no longer used for professional astro-imaging.
Gimp Foundation!! heavily marketed!

Memory leads...

blin > the single window mode is nearby from long time - true it was marked as development but was very stable try www.partha.com

Just the right news to wake up to! Decision-time for next semester's teaching is coming closer and closer and there seemed to be no light at the end of the very long "last minute fixes" tunnel. Now I may be certain (oh please, please!!!!!) that we can install GIMP 2.8 and that I don't have to use Photoshop.

I installed it on Gentoo Linux and it runs fine.
Before I tried 2.8 from git.I noticed there were memory leaks.
Now they're gone.
Thanks a lot devs.
Gerard

Woooohoooo!

I can not believe this. I have been waiting for year for a single window mode.