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GIMP 3.0.0 release

⚠️ Any date given below are purely indicative, helping developers to organize with some time frames; yet everybody is mostly volunteers and 👉we release when it's ready👈. Anyone taking such dates for a promise or relaying these as some official release date planning, or anything of the sort, is fooling themselves and others. Please don't do this, don't read more in the dates than what they are for (organizational).

Note: CC list of people to notify when preparing a release. If you wish to help for further release, e.g. with testing, news writing or other contributions, please come forward in comments to be added in the next CC list.

Timeline

This is only a tentative timeline of events to happen before GIMP 3.0.0 is released. It is based on our current development pace. I am hopeful this is a feasible schedule while not putting too much pressure on contributors.

Note: I will update the various steps as we go and as we refine our progression.

  • 2023-11-05: GIMP 2.10.36 release.
    Our next to last 2.10 series release because various security issues were fixed lately.
  • Mid-December (2023-12-17?): GIMP 3.0.0 (master branch) GUI feature freeze.
    Any of the GUI features which don't make this date will be pushed to after GIMP 3.0.0 (it might be GIMP 3.0.2, so it's not necessarily very long after). I am not including API features on purpose in the freeze, because I think an additional month for the last little tweaks may be worth it.
  • Mid-February: GIMP 2.99.18: last dev release (possibly neither all code invasion nor API changes yet but close!).
    I was originally hoping for a release candidate, but seeing current flow, I am doubting we could have all roadmap items marked as Done by then. In particular, API is getting in very good shape and I am working hard on space invasion again. But there are still quite some things to review and update. So let's assume that December will still be a dev release. The last one.
  • May 2: GIMP 2.10.38 release (if needed): last 2.10 series release.
  • August 20: GIMP 3.0.0 string freeze.
    Let's give at least one month for translators to do their job properly without changing the strings every other morning. Unless absolutely necessary (typos, language bugs and code bugs which imply string changes, everything qualified as bug fix basically), we should not change strings.
  • November: API freeze.
  • November 4: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1
    This may be followed potentially by 1 or 2 more RCs (hopefully not too many more), depending on reports.
  • Soon: GIMP 3.0.0 release.
    Let's target Libre Graphics Meeting 2024 (2024, May 9-12) as our tentative release date. If anyone wants to help with some of the more "promotional" events which were cited, such as a release video, this would also be your hopeful deadline.

@Wormnest: feel free to give me your opinion as GIMP docs maintainer if this timeline is good for you. In particular, would it be nice if we had a proper string freeze for translators (maybe at RC1 time? Or at least after the main GIMP freeze)? Or since the docs is now updated nightly, you wish to go for a more organic workflow with no string freezes ever?

@ok: same, any opinion on babl/GEGL/ctx side is welcome.

@aryeom: would this timeline fit your work schedule for the design-related tasks you have? The ideal deadline for in-GIMP contents is GIMP 2.99.18 (end of December), and final deadline would be RC1 (February).

Release Checklist

TODO: I will add the usual release checklist when we will be nearing the finale release.

Edited by Jehan