Yes, I've looked at GIMP before, but it mostly makes my brain hurt. A lot of the apps I've looked at do many of the same things, so the only change is in figuring out where to look and what steps to take.

I didn't actually have a map in reserve here, I just like maps. The last one I actually finished, I was probably 10.

Paint.NET gets updated pretty frequently, and supports user-made tools and plugins. I'm going to run through one of the tutorials on this site and see how well they translate over, but I'm guessing the answer will be "pretty good".

Cheers!