I recently was directed to Paint.Net, and I would suggest you take a look at it. It started as an undergrad project back in 2004, and completed in 10 weeks. It’s now on version 3.08 and runs nicely on Vista. I like software like this. Sure it’s free, but if you really like it, throw a few $$$ their way!
-kw
Agreed. Awesome app. I’ve been using it for a couple years.
How do you download it?
you go to http://www.getpaint.net/index.html and click on the download link on the top right of the page.