Myriad other changes have also been made to the software, and just today the project team made yet another exciting announcement: "The development version of GIMP is now capable of processing images in 16-bit and 32-bit modes, integer or float at your preference."
So, even more improvements are coming down the pike.
I use practically every day for creating and editing images, and I'm constantly amazed at the power it delivers. Want to give version 2.8 a try? It's available as a free from the project site.