GIMP has a plug-in that supports UFRAW (a free RAW converter) imports.
I'm not sure if you're using GIMP without that plug-in and the default is worse than the plug-in would be, or if you have the UFRAW based RAW conversion.
IIRC UFRAW itself isn't great in getting the white balance / color profile right by default for some cameras, and it may not intrinsically offer a sharpening setting. If you play with it a little you can probably come up with a profile manually that adjusts pretty well for your particular camera, and you can use that same setting for multiple subsequent photos. Sharpening you can certainly do in GIMP even if it isn't presented in the first RAW import / conversion screen menu.
Alternatively, this guy has a free (afaik) converter which I have NOT tried, though was considering doing so (I assume you use MS Windows; other builds are available for other platforms):
http://www.rawworkflow.com/downloads.html
http://www.whibalhost.com/_pf_...antJpegFromRaw_V10.zip
This is UFRAW it may be similar to what you are using with GIMP if you have that plugin, though maybe there is a newer / better version here (get the latest plug-in or version and see how it is).
Lack of sharpening is a bit annoying, but that's what GIMP is for.
http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/
http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html#MS
Here is bluemarine, it is still preliminary in its version but for simple conversions maybe it will be quite fine as long as you don't expect to use it as a full alternative to LightRoom for cataloging and searching many albums:
http://bluemarine.tidalwave.it/
http://bluemarine.tidalwave.it/download.html
Here is RAWDROP based on DCRAW which is a bit more sophisticated in some ways than UFRAW, though unfortunately DCRAW is command line driven (great for batch files, poor for using interactively). This GUI program for it doesn't show you a preview, so it is very basic, but if you get lucky and the "use auto WB" or "use camera WB" does a perfect conversion for you, it is very simple / efficient.
http://www.wizards.de/rawdrop/
Otherwise look at bibble labs software, Adobe Photoshop ELEMENTS (if it does RAW), maybe Adobe Aperture, Adobe lightroom, Adobe CameraRAW/DNG converter, lightzone, et. al.
Oh here's another idea... Qimage Pro for $50.. not free but not horrible... I know it will convert and PRINT the images.. I don't know if you can convert and SAVE the images to JPG/DNG/PPM/TIFF/whatever.... The price is about the same as PhotoShop Elements though so if you mainly want an image editor / converter for computer use as opposed to a mainly convert for printing tool, I'd go with PS elements or whatever.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/
Also check out
http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.acdsee.com/
http://www.lightcrafts.com/products/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...rison_of_image_viewers
You might want to get a neutral gray card and just make a habit of shooting that in one photo when you're doing a series of shots in the same location / lighting / exposure settings (assuming you often use manual / fixed settings). Then a single click on the gray target will fix your white balance in virtually any raw converter program since it'll then have a known color / white balance reference to work with. Some programs even do it fully automatically. You can use the same settings then for that whole batch of photos taken in the same general lighting / exposure conditions at that scene. The IJFR / Whibal software and site I linked above does this and they also sell a reference card to work with their converter software; I have no personal experience with their products though. There are many others, of course. Google for a "white balance reference" and you can even find TIFF files you can print on your own printer to generate a pattern of black/white texture that averages out to gray and then you can just take a piece of that and hold it in front of the camera for a gray reference that'll work pretty well, or there are other commercially sold ones.