GIMP v0.54 From 1996 With Motif Toolkit Now Flatpak'ed For Modern Linux Desktops

The open-source world waited long enough for the GIMP 3.0 release that finally came last year with its GTK3 port and more, but for those with time on their hands this weekend and want to relive GIMP's past from long ago, GIMP 0.54 has been adapted for Flatpak to work on modern Linux desktops. What makes this version of GIMP from 1996 notable is that it was the last to use the Motif toolkit.

GIMP 0.54 can now easily work on modern Linux desktops -- complete with the Motif toolkit -- thanks to a port to Flatpak for easy packaging/distribution.

This GIMP 0.54 port is hosted on GNOME.org GitLab by developer balooii. GIMP 0.54 isn't useful in 2026 in practice besides those nostalgic over the old days with Motif and friends in the era before the GTK toolkit. I tried out this Flatpak'ed GIMP 0.54 and indeed was working out fine on a 2026 Linux distribution.

And GIMP 0.54 vs. the modern GIMP 3.2 on Ubuntu Linux:

More details on this and other GNOME changes for the week via This Week in GNOME.