I've been using GIMP for a long time and I've always found it very intuitive and it does everything I need from an image manipulator. And I'm a coder who usually just needs to quickly fix something to fit into a layout (not a website layout, but close enough). So you may be on to something there.

Here in Canada, our Minister of State for Science & Technology is a former chiropractor who doesn't believe in evolution...

You may not need to drop out of console gaming just yet. If the Microsoft really does cripple their next machine with DRM, there is no saying that Sony will do the same thing. It seems like an obvious choice for Sony, doesn't it? The age of the exclusive title is over, this coming generation will see competition between two systems that play almost exactly the same games. If one system is laden with DRM and one isn't, it will make our choice between the two systems very easy.