Gimp devs take control of Snap package from Snapcrafters

There are many ways to get GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), the free/open-source raster graphics editor and one of the most popular alternatives to Photoshop, on Linux.

The most common one is using your distro's built-in package manager. Another method involves using universal packages, like Flatpak and Snap.

For a while, Snap was the only universal package for GIMP not maintained by the GIMP team. Instead, the Snapcrafters community handled its upkeep. While the package worked, it lacked an official endorsement from the GIMP project. The GIMP developers were aware of its existence but had no direct control over it.

In July this year, that began to change. GIMP developer, Bruno (@brunvonlope), expressed interest in making Snap an official distribution channel. He filed a request with Snapcrafters to transfer ownership of the Snap Store entry and its packaging files to the GIMP project. The plan was to bring the Snap under the same co-maintenance model as the project's official Flatpak, conforming it to the team's packaging principles.

In a recent blog post, the GIMP devs said that the migration process took "fruitful months" to complete, and thanked the Snapcrafters community for its cooperation.

Now, if you head over to the Snap Store, you will see the GIMP application listed with a green verified tick. GIMP 3.0.6 is the first version available as an official snap package on the stable channel.

To install the snap package, simply type in this command in the terminal (make sure you have snap installed):

snap install gimp

There are some changes with plugins, though. The GIMP team said that because of its current packaging principles, third-party plugins that were previously bundled in the unofficial Snap had to be removed from the official release.

If you want, you can grab the plugins you need, like GMIC and OpenVINO, from their respective repositories. A new plug interface called gimp-plugins was created, which allows developers to package their plugins for Snap without breaking the main application's confinement.