GIMP

not worth paying for PS, because it is GIMP :) kartony

I use GIMP professionally at my job. We use only open source software, so I had to learn GIMP instead of Photoshop. There was a pretty steep learning curve, but I will never touch Photoshop today. I still miss some things like layer effects though, but I think GIMP wins in the end. I know it is a bit different and frustrating to get a grip on. I believe that everyone should give GIMP a honest try before thowing it into the trash can.

Great piece of software for those of us not wanting to fork out for photoshop, and/or illegally obtain it and end up with system full of viruses & trojans.

When I'm on the clock, I'm using Adobe Photoshop - still the king of the raster graphics editors, IMO. But, for my own personal usage, I've really taken a liking to GIMP. PS CS5 has actually been giving my computer a little grief, every so often, while every iteration of GIMP has always been rock solid. It's a little easier on the system resources, and man... I do like the price tag of $0.00.

If it wasn't for the layer handling, I could bring myself to use it. But being raised on Photoshop (yes, there, I've said the bad word) that part feels really awkward.

Oh GIMP how I love your silly name, impossible-to-draw-a-straight-line and lack of 'stroke', but still blows everything but Potatoshop out of the water. Developemnt seems slower recently

Never took the time to actually use it but I've seen it being used and I think it suffices for general image editing, at least from what I've seen. Takes sometime getting use to.