GIMP is great. I use it almost every day, albeit only for simple edits and markups. But I remember reading once that the lead maintainer of GIMP (not sure if still same guy) is not an artist and only actually uses the program once or twice a year to make postcards for his family. I bet his postcards are awesome, but it seems less-than-optimal that the people spearheading GIMP aren't actively using it. It's rude to say this, but that kind of explains some of the UX problems GIMP infamous for.