libtool reach around
From my point of view as a user of software, there are two ways to put software on your personal computer, one demands that the sources be available and that tools are available to build it and install it and also that the sources you have make sense enough to build with those tools. The other way is to move binaries from one medium to another (like from a cd/dvd or from another computer via a network connection). This simple explanation of the different ways to install software is in reality not so clear cut, but for this how-to it should suffice. Both methods expect that software should be easily & readily available and (the build &) the installation of it should be simple and just work.
In the years since I started to use Linux and also since my developer friends encouraged me to use a specific distribution (if I wanted to work with them), there seems to be a little something going on within that system where the people who are building the Debian binaries do not want their users to build and install their own preferred versions of software. The point where this "something" is occurring is with one of the build tools.
It takes only a little bit of pre-configuring of the environment variables to allow both conditions to exist at the same while on your desktop, in spite of that problematic build tool. Here is what I learned about how to do that....
better GIMP how tos
The information I write here is often laced with self doubt, thinly disguised insults and an occasional flirt with people I have either met or imagined.
Better documentation about all of this can be found at docs.gimp.org.