Another reason may be that it is difficult to build the development version because it depends on released versions of some libraries that are not included yet in the major GNU/Linux distributions (e.g., GTK+ version 2.2.2). Also, the number of dependencies for GIMP 1.3.x is much higher than the number of dependencies for GIMP 1.2.x, so it is more difficult to have a working build environment for the 1.3.x version. This problem may be solved as time passes, because more and more distributions will include the required libraries.
I think the related reason here is that many open source projects get their contributors from non-Linux platforms, esp. Windows. And building GIMP/Windows is even more of a nightmare than building GIMP on Linux.
Leonard -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:leonardr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <http://www.lazerware.com>
