I don't ever endorse stealing software, but I use Photoshop 7.0 (which I bought). It came out in the late 90's and still does everything I ever need it to do. If you were going to steal software, I doubt Adobe would care if you stole something over 15 years old. Just a thought. GIMP is good (and actaully has an Alpha Layer, something Photoshop took out in 4.0) but I am so used to Photoshop, that I just can't use GIMP. It's same, same... but too different for me.