I've heard about GIMP for years, but I have never tried it. I have decided that paying for stuff sucks, which is what I've been doing for the past couple years with Adobe products. I'm going to test out GIMP 2.6 in the next couple weeks so expect updates...and hell...i may even open up that photo gallery so cleverly hidden on this site!
To read more about it...go here.
To download [for free] go here.