Adobe alternatives

[gcol90]

I'm on CS 5.5, student version, and it does me fine for now. Since the move to the Creative Cloud has made things a tad expensive, been looking at alternatives. Anyone know of any half decent ones for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc? Reviews online have recommended Pixelmator, and I already know about QuarkXpress and iDraw - though I'm pretty sure Pixelmator and iDraw are OS X only. Then there's Corel's alternatives - which are Windows only. Heard good thinks about Inkscape, and used to use GIMP, but that seems to pale in comparison to PS.
Wondering if anyone uses anything other than Adobe's stuff, and if so, what? And how comparable are they to Adobe's versions?

 

[Levi]

Welcome to the wonderful world of design where you've basically got a monopoly when it comes to software used in 'professional' environments.
Alternatives to look into - (windows based here)
photoshop - photoshop express - gimp/gimpshop - paintshop pro (likely best option here)
illustrator - autodesk sketchbook pro - corel stuff
indesign - quark - publisher (no seriously some do use this, I've even used it for some quick stuff for mum's class at her school where they basically have office and that's it)
Serif software - usually free stuff floating around
Mac
Photoshop - pixelmator is meant to be very good
illustrator - there are some but not off the top of my head
indesign - quark