Editor’s Note: This article is part of the Tales of A Linux Switcher series.
If you are a graphic designer or developer, or you just have a need to edit images, a mainstay of your Linux toolbox is likely to be the Gimp.
If you are coming from the Mac or Windows world, it is probable that you have used Adobe’s Photoshop program to achieve your image editing needs in the past. Having used Photoshop and Gimp extensively over the past decade, I can tell you that one of the features I liked about the Photoshop environment on Windows has been the unified window. All the palettes, toolbars and editing windows exist inside a single, unified window.
I always missed this when using Gimp on Linux (or the other OS as well, since Gimp is available for all three 
). One of the main feature draws for me to the latest Gimp release, version 2.8, was this single line in the release notes:
GIMP 2.8 introduces an optional single-window mode.
Awesome! Of course, Gimp 2.8 is not in the current Ubuntu 12.04 repository (Note: Ubuntu 12.10 has version 2.8 listed in the repository!) :
$ apt-cache policy gimp gimp: Installed: (none) Candidate: 2.6.12-1ubuntu1 Version table: 2.6.12-1ubuntu1 0 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
Not to fear! Using the following set of commands you can successfully obtain the Gimp 2.8 software as well as a compatible version of the plugin registry:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp sudo apt-get update
As you see from a policy check, after adding the repository and updating the cache, you will now be receiving the Gimp package and the updated plugin-registry from the new PPA:
$ apt-cache policy gimp gimp: Installed: (none) Candidate: 2.8.0-1ubuntu0ppa6~precise Version table: 2.8.0-1ubuntu0ppa6~precise 0 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/otto-kesselgulasch/gimp/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages 2.6.12-1ubuntu1 0 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
$ apt-cache policy gimp-plugin-registry gimp-plugin-registry: Installed: (none) Candidate: 5.20120523-2ubuntu0ppa9~precise Version table: 5.20120523-2ubuntu0ppa9~precise 0 500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/otto-kesselgulasch/gimp/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages 3.5.4-1 0 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe amd64 Packages
To install it now enter the following:
sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-plugin-registry
Now you have the most recent release!