[ELAY]

I am an enthusiastic amateur on a PC platform, too cheap to buy Photoshop CS3 (and I suppose too timid or upstanding or something to pirate it). I have been using The GIMP, which most of the forum readers probably know is an open source image editing platform which works in Linux and Windows environments (maybe Mac too?).

The big advantage is of course that it is absolutely free to use. The main drawbacks are probably that the Windows interface is a bit unusual, in that everything sort of has its own window, which can mean lots of time on the Task Bar finding/opening Windows (I gather there is something of a fix for this in a program called GIMPShop); there is only support for 8-bit colour at the moment; there really isn't native support for adjustment layers per se (you can still do the adjustments, but you either have to do them on your background copy, or do them on separate duplicate layers); and there are fewer third party resources available (though there is a reasonably big library of "script-fus" which are very similar to PS plug-ins, and there are lots of GIMP photo tutorials out there).

I know there is something of a philosophical/political debate between the GIMP nation and the PS nation, but I am not really trying to ignite that feud in this forum. If I had the dough, I would probably spring for CS3 myself. I don't though, and even with its drawbacks it is a great resource which allows me to do things with my photos that I would otherwise be unable to do.