I use GIMP mostly these days. I don’t do anything too involved that often, but it has most of the features from the pre-CS days (I started using PS around version 3.x). If you are relying on new features constantly, then probably will not feel too great for a while. But all the essentials are fine (color curves, layers, selection tools, etc). I hear a lot of good things about Krita for vector stuff, but I haven’t used it much.
I use GIMP mostly these days. I don’t do anything too involved that often, but it has most of the features from the pre-CS days (I started using PS around version 3.x). If you are relying on new features constantly, then probably will not feel too great for a while. But all the essentials are fine (color curves, layers, selection tools, etc). I hear a lot of good things about Krita for vector stuff, but I haven’t used it much.