I'm working on a short-term project and could really use a program similar to photoshop, but can't afford the real thing. Are there any similar programs I can download that are cheaper, or even better, free?

I read in this thread that you can use GIMP2.6 to do photo editing and other basic usage of Photoshop. It's available to download for free. I also read somewhere that Adobe started distributing old versions of Photoshop (or Pagemaker?) for free.

Yeah, the GIMP is pretty fully featured, and once you learn how to use it, it will do what you want. But there is a steep learning curve-I haven't really managed it.

Gimp is pretty easy to run, both times I have used it on Windows (not as great a copy) and Linux it has worked fine for me. Then again I am now where near as skilled as some of those I have seen.

Great, thanks guys! I'm not doing anything crazy-technical, just need to put some stuff together for a small-scale publication. I just wanted something better than MS's Paint program.

It's better to upgrade your learning rather than wasting your time playing online games.