vvk78

But if, like me, you find Photoshop too slow, Gimp (or its variants) too unweildy, and just need a simple and quick editor for all your basic photo/image manipulations needs, then check these out...

Coded Color Photo Studio (very easy yet powerful editor, and its site has some fantastic tutorials, that can easily be inferred for other graphics tools too!):

http://www.codedcolor.com/en/tutorials2.htm

digiKam (free alternative to the awesome Photoshop Lightroom):

http://www.digikam.org/

Photofiltre (excellent freeware editor, with layers/masks support)

http://photofiltre.free.fr/

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/photofiltre.html

http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/photofiltre_portable

Zoner Photo Studio (free cousin of ACDSee; more of a photo-management/cataloging tool, but with decent editing features):

http://free.zoner.com/