Well I downloaded the free trial of Lightroom 5 and now I can't open the folder that I saved it in (it has crashed the computer twice). Thanks, Adobe!

Well I finally got my folder to open. Took almost two minutes, but now I'm not sure if I should try opening LR or just delete it.

Well GIMP is just fine for what it is a free photo editing program. It in no way compares to PS/CS. I have friends who use strictly P&S cameras, and that is as far as they will ever go, when they asked me how to adjust photos, I told them to use GIMP. but the user face takes a little getting used to, but some of the general advantages I would say are 1) it's updated more often than PS. 2) Being open source, it's very customizable, and there are always new user-developed plugins & tweaks & twerks being released. I'm very productive using the XP-Pen Star G640 Graphic Tablet with GIMP . That includes Windows and Linux.

Photoscape

Nice! I also use this! It's really nice for adding motion blurs and depth of field. It's good to use to get more of you're photos featured