Corel Paint Shop Pro X

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) deserves more respect because it's a very, very good product. Technically, it's every bit as good Photoshop (unless you're into high-end professional work). You'll be hard pressed to find a review saying Photoshop out-performs PSP.

Magazines always explain how to do things with Photoshop. I've never seen anything written that I can't do in PSP.

The PSP interface is vastly superior to Photoshop; PSP it's more aligned to a typical Windows interface. With PSP most, if not all, of your work is done with the mouse (or pen) an an abundance of buttons. With Photoshop you need the keyboard and because there are fewer buttons you spend a lot of time "drilling down" menus and sub-menus. I've written software documentation and done software training for 15+ years - PSP has the better interface.

Most of the big dogs use Photoshop. If you need or want to run with the big dogs (pro photogs) or feel you need a large support community, Photoshop may be your pick. If you want a better interface and don't mind moving to a different drummer's beat, PSP is an excellent product.

Photoshop.

Haven't needed it and probably started using PSP in 1998 or '99.