There is a new (sort of) raw converter available called ART Raw Converter. It is a fork of Rawtherapee with an updated interface, tweaked algorithms, and bits of darktable thrown in for good measure. I have been playing with it for about a month and the results are very nice.
More info here: agriggio / ART / wiki / Home — Bitbucket
I will absolutely be checking this out! Thanks for sharing.
It lacks watermarking, but I use digikam for that. The film simulations are excellent as it uses the HaldCLUT system from rawtherapee.
I downloaded it this morning. My biggest issue with it is the edit history. I really prefer the way Darktable does that. I will defiantly play with it more and share it on the next DLN Xtend.
Yes, The edit history is a bit different. It is non-destructive but not as intuitive as darktable. During a session, all the edit steps are available, but once you process a file, they are collapsed in a way that is had to be seen. You can revert to default from the light table or film strip and start over again. Since the program has some very sane defaults, this isn’t as bad as it sounds.
I’ve been watching this for a while and tried it out when it first was forked; I haven’t ever really got to grips with the workflow in Rawtherapee nor ART, but love these results so I’ll check it out again I think.
So crisp without being over-sharpened, however that may be your setup of course 
40+ years of photographic experience helps.
dammit. I should know better… you don’t say “you must have a good hammer” to a builder that is good at what they do. Very nice. 