10.04 Good Buddy - Ubuntu Lucid Lynx sighted, gives up the GIMP

David M Williams
Friday, 27 November 2009 08:32

Opinion and Analysis

Never one to rest on their laurels, the Ubuntu development team has rolled out the first daily build of next year’s Ubuntu 10.04 release just a few short weeks after Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala hit the Internet. This time around though it is sans The GIMP.

Ubuntu editions are pumped out twice yearly, in April and October. The popular distribution enjoys a distinctive naming and numbering scheme which sees versions given an alliterative moniker as well as a version that ties in with the month and year of its release.

Thus, Ubuntu 10.04 is the April 2010 version and is still practically six months away. Nevertheless, the development team are already beavering away and their first daily build – the first of approximately 180 – is now online for those interested in the bleeding edge of tech.

Of particular interest is that 10.04 will be an LTS – or long term support – release, meaning that corporate customers in particular can be assured that this version of Ubuntu will be supported for years to come.

While at this time 10.04 differs little from the just released 9.10 there is one noticeable change.

Specifically, the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) met a fortnight ago and made the surprising decision to remove popular open source image manipulation tool The GIMP from the Ubuntu default installation.

This doesn’t mean The GIMP will not be available, because it can be freely added to any Linux-based computer via the system’s package manager. It will simply no longer be installed by default or included on the Ubuntu installation CD.

The GIMP has enjoyed a status of being one of the most prominent open source apps, along with OpenOffice and only a select few other products. It is seen in some circles as a serious contestant against the likes of PhotoShop and other high-end graphics manipulation packages.

It’s precisely because of The GIMP’s power that it has been removed, with the UDS audience espousing consensus that Ubuntu ought to target itself to the ordinary user, and be the best all-around desktop environment it can be for regular folk.

This means that a complex program like The GIMP with its large amount of plugins and intimidating interface has been shown the door. A replacement graphics package has not yet been determined.