GIMP is a great program. AEBN uses this and they passed the info onto us.

Now with free programs vs paid software... Nearly every software out there that I have found offers a free trial, in many cases a 30 day trial. Use it. Use it. Use it. Even if you don't need it right now, use it. Mess around with it. Use that trial to the max. And you will know if your going to use it or not.

In this industry, here's the programs we use:
Photoshop 7.0
Gimp - Free
Roxio Easy Media Creator 10
Sony Vegas Pro
Easy Thumbnails (Mass Image Resizing)
Dreamweaver
Gif Animator
Core FTP

These are the main software programs we use and in many cases the only software programs we use.

Photoshop, this copy was given to us by our business collegues.
Roxio - This is a $100 program.
GifAnimator - I am pretty sure we got it for free.
Core FTP - This is a free program
Easy Thumbnails - Free
Gimp - Free
Dreamweaver - Our designer gave us his license.
Sony Vegas - We started out with the $100 shelf product at Circuit City.


For about $1,000 you will have products that can last a liftetime. Many of these software programs have been in use since day 1 of our operations.

Just some advice. If your just starting out... I suggest start off with free versions then build up.