Founded by Spencer Kimball in 1996 with the simple aim of producing a "paint" program, the GIMP project has become one of the defining projects of the open source world. The GIMP itself is an image manipulation program that is beginning to rival even Adobe Photoshop in features and functionality.

The project is loosely organised, with about 15 people making regular contributions. There is no fixed release schedule other than "when it is done".