Mailing the story:
GIMP 2.6 changes are mostly internal
The GIMP -- the GNU Image Manipulation Program -- is one of the flagships of free software. On October 1 the project released version 2.6, with many new and improved features. Most of the user-visible features are just polish; the real changes are lurking under the hood. How you install the GIMP 2.6 depends on your distribution. Check your package manager to see if it's already available in a repository. If not, you can download it and build it from source using the usual ./configure && make && sudo make install routine.