Scribus project is known for being slow or, rather, cautious regarding releases of unstable versions. The version 1.5.0 is still in works, and there’s a bunch of new things since January:
- further work on new Preferences and Document Settings dialogs;
- work on better color spaces support;
- gradient meshes (yes, you got it right) thanks to Adrian Johnson’s gradient-mesh Cairo branch;
- Illustrator-like symbols;
- preview for all supported vector file formats in the open/import dialogs;
- improved CGM importer;
- new Micrografx DRW importer;
- support for pattern fills in XAR and PICT importers;
- support for Diamond gradient fills in the XAR importer;
- support for gradient meshes, symbols and brush patterns in the AI importer;
- improved SVG exporter;
- support for vector files in the Scrapbook;
- over 100 of bugfixes.
Unfortunately there’s still a bunch of loose ends all around, including things that should have been fixed for years. The team is currently very limited in both amount of active contributors and their spare time to undertake major projects. They also weren’t accepted as a GSoC mentoring organization this year. The only way to speed up things seems to be getting involved into programming.
Unfortunately the very same thing applies to GIMP and GEGL. The current team is 3,5 persons large. The existing ETA for 2.8 is end of November 2010 (last measured in early March), and the current estimation for 2.10 is 42 weeks while not mentioning GEGL at all.
Both projects have grown very complex over the years, and thus getting involved has become difficult. The best way to start contributing is probably studying plug-ins, since both applications have 3rd party plug-in architecture (not quite advertised in Scribus for some reason which I personally find unreasonable). Developers of both projects (less so for GIMP) are going to attend Libre Graphics Meeting 2010 next week in Brussels, so if you are close to the venue and willing to help, meeting them face2face is an opportunity not to be sneezed at 