I just installed Ubuntu 26.04 and it's gimp starts for 14 seconds.

After the first run (where it has to evaluate plugins etc) it starts in under 4s on 26.04 on my Lenovo P53 (laptop from 2019). Which is admittedly not exactly snappy, but it's OK IMO.

Is the Ubuntu version of GIMP distributed as a snap package? I've had horrible performance with snap apps.