Software

I prefer Photoshop myself due to the overwhelming amount of features, but if you're trying to save a few bucks, you could always go with The Gimp, which is free. You can find it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/
There is also a linux and mac version up there somewhere as well.

Adobe Photoshop is meant for graphics professionals, and has an extremely steep learning curve. If you use graphics programs 30+ hours a week, Adbobe's eccentric interface is a major productivity enhancer (once you master it). If you use it 3- hours a week, you'll spend all you time figuring out how to do stuff.

What type of design software are you looking for? Web or print? For web site design, I recommend Macromedia Fireworks. I used Photoshop for years before switching to Fireworks, which is designed for creating web sites. Photoshop is great for photo editing and creating complex web graphics like collages, but Fireworks is much more efficient for creating web site comps.

I've found Adobe Photoshop has too many confusing things in it. I've purchased PaintShop Pro 6 ( at a discount ) and have had great success. There's a lot of tutorials online to help you learn this user-friendly program :)

If you want to do web graphics, I'd also recommend Macromedia Fireworks. I currently use Fireworks for graphics and photo editing and Macromedia Dreamweaver for site design/layout. Both seem to complement each other very well.

Hi, I wanted to respond to some of the questions - I am wanting this for Graphic Design/Layout (Art) related work. I am not doing this for Web design/layout. I'm trying to get started doing my art as a hobby.
Thanks Rick

Free? you got it! :-) try this program: Gimp from: http://www.gimp.org this soft-ware will run good on just about any OS. You can do almost anything that you would want as in Photo-Shop. Even animations which can be run in flash. (down-loads are from http://www.sourceforge.net so it's always ok) There's also Paint.Net (that's the name) originally from a group of Grad-Students in Wash.State Uni. (supported by MS) It was downloaded from: http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net They did a really good job on building that one. I think it is now available from many sources now.
I use both, and can say the only limitations are operater & not soft-ware.
And, as you asked, They're both free.!. :-) but, be carefull, after you get used to them you'll find yourself having too much fun. Give 'em a try