Ask HN: What are good free alternatives for Adobe software?

Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/) is a very complete open source vector graphics editor (similar to Illustrator).

It has probably the best set of node editing tools of any vector editor I've used. I now use it exclusively for illustration, web design etc.

Creature House Expression (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_House_Expression) was a serious competitor to Illustrator. It offered bitmap-style 'painterly' graphics in a vector environment, and an excellent UI.

Unfortunately, CH was acquired by Microsoft... MS is kind enough to provide the original (wonderful!) software for free; just follow the links in the article. Full (superb!) documentation included.

Creature House was also working on an animation version of Expression called LivingCels. Both Mac and Windows betas were released; the Mac version is rather unstable. It was touted by the media as a 'Flash killer', but LivingCels was far more: a truly revolutionary animation package with automatic 'in-betweening' backed by the full Expression engine. There's a website (livingcels.com) with tutorials and documentation, and some download links; currently offline, but should be up again in the near future... ;-)

Erm... not to be a dickhead or anything, but Adobe has some pretty sweet software. Although, I'm not all "I LOVE ADOBE" - because I believe they bought their best products from Macromedia.

For Photoshop, GIMP I suppose.