"GIMP is a perfectly decent alternative for people who don't want to shell out money for Photoshop" It _can_. It really depends on the features that you need.

"GIMP is a perfectly decent alternative for people who don't want to shell out money for Photoshop" It _can_. It really depends on the features that you need. I can hardly imagine myself doing some professional Webdesign with Gimp. Im a Photoshop user and i tried hard to learn Gimp to do some serious work on it. I think that it may not suit every Designer's needs. But for Illustrator, i think there is a valid alternative: InkScape. I think it's one of the most promising piece of open-source software for graphic designers. I liked it. But i dont use it since im more comfortable with Illustrator. ;)