Re: [Gimp-user] Photoshop vs Gimp for mobile dev?

["Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg tristatelogic com>]

In message <CAL8n2zM3hdjOCYVjpcqr_56QDNkoXQuQyzMksnyFMoRw9s4WEw mail gmail com>
, Frank Gore <gore friendlyphotozone com> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 2:09 PM, Alexandre Prokoudine
> <alexandre prokoudine gmail com> wrote:
> > Only if you mean DCRaw. Because UFRaw development pretty much
> > stagnated. Two releases in last two years. Compare that to ACR.
>
> Yeah, the current version of UFraw is pretty far behind. Gimp does not
> make use of dcraw directly, it uses UFraw. And since dcraw is not a
> library, UFraw doesn't benefit from updates to dcraw unless they keep
> up with releases. UFraw currently barely supports my 2-year-old Pentax
> K-x, it's pretty pathetic.

I've only been skimming the messages in this thread, but the discussion of
raw files caught my attention, and I have a question...

I've been planning on buying a Lumix DMC-FZ150 next year, when the prices
come down some more.  (I already own a DMC-ZS7 and I think it is probably
the best camera I've ever owned.  Images are sharp, and when the thing is in
it's intelligent auto mode, it is almost impossible to take a bad picture.)

One of the advantages of the FZ150, compared to its predecessors in the FZ
series, is that it can do raw.  (It also has an intelligent hotshoe... one
of only about three or four long zoom bridge cameras that has that, and
something I personally find indispensible.)

Anyway, I just now went and resarched it and found that the Lumix cameras
produce their raw images into something called .RW2 files.

I'd just like to ask if there is going to be any problem in reading those
into Gimp and/or getting them converted into something like standard tiff
files, preferably on Linux/FreeBSD, rather than say, Windoze.  (I don't
like to use Windoze if I can avoid it.)