Well 2.8's original release date (estimate only) was set to December 27th 2010 however if you wanna findout what happened about that you can view it here. Now Gimp Developer Martin Nordholts aka (Enselic) who posted the estimate before, also posted another estimate on GimpUsers with the topic titled "New schedule for GIMP 2.8", there's also a topic on GimpUsers of this posted by devvv.

His new estimate is October 19th 2011 and you can view Gimp 2.8's development process on Martin's new website he developed called TaskTaste.

If anyone has any other information or wanna keep other users informed on this feel free to post what you know here.

Happy Halloween!

Cool info Mike; thanks. Even when GIMP 2.8 comes out, I'll keep 2.6.11 around (maybe 12 by then; lol) since I know they will add features that will more then likely break Script-fus and plugins that I hold on too. As some of you already know, I still keep GIMP 1.2.4 around for a few plugins that have no 2.x compiles. I do hope they allow custom install so that you can have multiple instances of the GIMP (at least the 2.x family).

The main thing I'm looking forward to in 2.8 is the layer groups. It gets so frustrating trying to find a certain layer from among 100 - 200... I always put in empty layers as "dividers" and give them easily noticeable names (all caps, special symbols etc.) but they're no substitute for proper folders...

I'll also be keeping 2.6 around. It's the version that changed me from an occasional GIMP user to really getting into it.

Currently I still have 2.7.1 installed but it's unworkable being that it's an unstable version. I hope, maybe it's fixed already, that 2.6 and 2.8 can both have a nice theme. Currently 2.6 has a nice theme and 2.7 has a broken theme. There was a thread about it. Will keep it in mind for when 2.8 comes out.

Also looking forward to layer groups. And hope that the transformation tools will all be one tool. So you can resize, rotate and move in one go. Does anyone know if something like this is planned?

I do not know if it is planned for the future but it sure is a great idea.I would like to see rotate, move, and re-size all in a selection.
Click-able skins would be a good addition also.
I do not think i will keep 2.6.11. When and if 2.8 comes out i think i am cleaning house.

Lyle are 1.2.4 and 1.2.5 pretty much the same version?

No it's not planned, I'd like it to be though, as well as the selection tools as one tool.

2.8 I'm looking forward to everything it's to hard for me to just say one over the other when they'll all be incredibly helpful for me.

I would love to see the Capablity of Producing 3D Shapes and Designs in 3.0
Maybe Blender and GIMP Could team up and Make one Awesome program

Same here, however Blender, and GIMP are programmed completely different. So I highly doubt they'd ever team up, however it would be nice to think about.

Blender is programmed in the Python programming language (yes I said python) and Gimp is programmed in the standard C language, and I believe it uses some Python in it, but not to sure. You can findout more about Gimp's development on the GIMP Developer Resource as well as GimpUsers.

GIMP is like the US, it has a bit of everything in it, from what I have heard

And Blender uses Python.

Anyone know anything else that is 3D and free?
And isn't Sketch Up?

Yes, and there's Art of Illusion, Wings 3D, 3DVIA Shape, MovieStorm, DAZ Studio, MakeHuman, Bryce 5.5 [Mac version], Sweet Home 3D, K-3D, and Caligari trueSpace.

However no doubt so far Blender is the top contender, and probably will remain for quite awhile.

Holy Snap, I'll check those out later
Is one for Abstract Mainly?
That is really what I want, a freeware C4D style thing
That isn't as confusing as Blender

Bryce is mainly for landscapes, however it's great to make C4D's and is extremely easy as well, here's four good tutorials I found.
http://v-rs.deviantart.com/art/bryce-ab ... l-38595157
http://c0nceptualize-3d.deviantart.com/ ... s-12361909
http://wcfasig.deviantart.com/art/Abstr ... l-20484664
http://tukan.deviantart.com/art/Bryce-Tutorial-16222247

NOTE: 5.5 is the last free version they ever released so try getting that, and if you're a Linux user just run it threw Wine, and it should run smoothly, I had no problems running it before.