Hi!
But honestly, is there no open source software that can generate a thumbnail from a 15MB PNG without nuking our servers?
No.
Yes, everyone's busy. Yes, there are more pressing issues (SUL, stable versions, you name it). Yes, MediaWiki wasn't developed as a media repository (tell me about it;-) Yes, "sofixit" myself. Still, I ask: is this the best we can do?
Why do you ask, after all these 'yes'?