Interview with Øyvind Kolås, GIMP developer

One old interview, one very online crowd. The GIMP team resurfaced a 2017 chat with Øyvind “Pippin” Kolås—the mind behind GEGL and babl, the tech that powers color and the new non‑destructive filters in GIMP 3.0 (think: effects you can tweak later without ruining your original). The comments? A rollercoaster. Some went full standing ovation: “What a mindset. Deep respect!” and praise for his openness about living off community support rather than Silicon Valley pay. Others latched onto the vibe—“That’s a cool name”—while trying to figure out how to say Ø properly.

Then the drama hit. A user flagged the time-warp energy: posted in 2026, interview from 2017. Cue “we’re in a timeline glitch” memes and confusion. Another commenter turned it into a mini‑manifesto on cultural worth and naming, reigniting the long‑running debate about what “GIMP” is called and how it’s perceived. And right on cue, the UI wars kicked off: “Maybe the GIMP developer should be interviewing someone who actually understands UX,” a jab that split the room between volunteer‑powered empathy and “please hire designers” desperation.

Hobbit jokes flew (“Pippin peeks into the palantír—aka the codebase”), but beneath the memes was a familiar open‑source paradox: huge impact, tiny budgets, and endless arguments over names and interfaces. The interview humanizes the dev; the thread humanizes the drama. Read more at GIMP.