I can count on 1… actually, 0 fingers the number of people I know who actually shelled out money for Photoshop. They priced themselves out of the market years ago. That $700 is $700 that can go towards a really good Wacom.

Maybe this will finally get a few alternatives out there.

I know most of the artistic types I know of went to Paint Tool Sai for basic sketching and drawing, with some using Manga / Comic Studio. And Japan has a rather frightening number of programs they’re making to replace Photoshop — Sai being the first and most important, but Clip Studio Paint has some really amazing features, to boot.