More functionality than photoshop CS4 at a fraction of the price?

[Vizier]

It can't beat Photoshop.

[ravells]

It can't beat Photoshop.

It does on a price to functionality ratio

But on that ratio, Gimp beats everything!

[Vizier]

It does on retail price to functionality ratio

Fixed.

If I were going to use an inferior program because of $$$ issues it would be GIMP since its completely free.

[dormouse]

It can't beat Photoshop.

Care to expand?

I have PS & PSE (etc etc), but have never tried X3. There are so many ways in which I can imagine another program might suiting me better than PS (not least Adobe's pricing & upgrade gouging, especially out of the US) that I'm always interested in alternatives.

[Vizier]

Care to expand?

I have PS & PSE (etc etc), but have never tried X3. There are so many ways in which I can imagine another program might suiting me better than PS (not least Adobe's pricing & upgrade gouging, especially out of the US) that I'm always interested in alternatives.

Pricing issues aside PS does everything and very very stable. I can remember using PS 3.1 on a MAC in high school. Theres been a lot of development since then. Why would I use a lesser program?

[dormouse]

It seems to me that the really big issue is the relationship between usability and features. Very easy to have lots of features and poor usability, very hard to have lots of features and good usability. PS has lots of features and so-so usability at best (for me, this is a personal thing to some extent - though most people who love PS and find working it easy have used it an awful lot for an awful long time). I'd happily sacrifice a number of features for better usability. In some ways I do now. I only use PS for those things where there's no good alternative.