Curt - which speed issue are you referring to? Is it the one in the Viewer tab where it generates all the thumbnails when you go to a folder? Maybe turning the thumbnail cache on would help. The issue is similar to other viewers such as Faststone Image Viewer which can view folder via thumbnails. One way to avoid the thumbnail preview this is go to the Editor tab and open the specific filename.
I'm just starting to see PhotoScape on the other download sites such as softpedia, download.com, softonic, majorgeeks, etc.
From the looks of it, even though it says version 3, it's either
1. the first general release and just labeled it version 3 to give it some maturity
2. OR the software was called something else before and has just undergone a name change
Anyways I'll keep my eye on the user reviews, looks good so far. Right now it's on a standalone Win98 box isolated from the rest of my stuff.
Now if only the author can do something about making the "calling home" aspect and the automatic download of flickr photo an optional feature