[lin robinson]

That is what a lot of it comes down to. PS feels all wrong to me, as do Nikon cameras.

I use some programs just for one thing they do well. I use Microsoft Photo Editor (of all things) because they've got this great little magic wand for turning selected colors transparent--with selected similarity--and a gamma slider on their brightness/contrast/hue control.

I like GIMP's alpha to logo filter-you can whip out cool logos in seconds.

Paint.net has a really great way of zooming, positioning, rotating one layer on another.

I use PAINT a lot, actually. I haven't found anything better for blocking colors and love the way you can assemble things with a selectable dropout color.

Word processors used to be like that. Back in the DOS days (remember the little shacks selling shareware programs for a couple of bucks on floppy disks?) I used a half dozen of them, some just for certain abilities. Now it's Word Uber Alles and there are things you can't do, but tough titty, chumps. Wait for our next version which will take up twice the disk space and be even less workable. Runs only on ReVista.