Seems I'm not paying much attention to this site. I got a new Macbook Pro in early March and well...it took a while to get over the sheer awe factor of a new Mac before I could start asking myself "So what can I do with this thing that's actually useful, or at least pretty"

After installing Gimpshop and Inkscape, I think I feel a bit of a renewed interest in being a bit more creative. The new avatar should be less painful on the eyes. I still don't have a steady hand in Inkscape, but at least the "B" symbol in my rune is a bit less awkward and the whole thing isn't on a white background.

For those interested, Gimpshop is The Gimp, the gnu/open source alternative to photoshop, with a slight UI retouch to make it more friendly to folks with a photoshop background. Inkscape is of course, the open source analog to Illustrator/Freehand.

Both Gimpshop, The Gimp and Inkscape managed to beat Adobe to market with Universal binaries for all us Intel-Mac owners. Once again, open source proves its power and flexibility.

I should start turning out some vectors and accompanying prose if I can get my act in gear. Anyone interested in sharing open-source/free methods of making vector animation, please send me a note. I'm not promising my firstborn but the depths of my appreciation for advice on this would be great.

As a final note, if you haven't seen it already, go look at ~Xentalion's movie "Clippy goes to hell" for a couple of laughs at the expense of Microsoft. Then hopefully install Linux or OSX on your comp shortly thereafter, I tend to recommend Ubuntu or Mandriva for first time users.