Substitute for Adobe Photoshop.?

I use the OSX and I don't intend to use photoshop because of the license cost. Its a pain considering most amatures and professionals use photoshop for their art work and I can't open their files without photoshop. What would be a good subsitute/compromise to photoshop that would allow me to work well on my own art work and hopefully still able to open photoshop files?

Substitute for Adobe Photoshop.?norton

Gimp. Totally comparable in features and abilities to Photoshop, and it's open source (free!)

Substitute for Adobe Photoshop.?spyware remover

hi there.. y dont u try the adobe photoshop cs2 trial.. so that u can open ur file and save it in ur pc.. ill give u the site wherein u can download a trial version of photoshop cs2 for free.. but limited days only...

here...

http://www.download.com/Adobe-Photoshop/...
Photoshop Elements is a cheaper stripped down version of Photoshop and should open PSD files.
I believe Photoshop Elements is a Windows only product. Since you are using OSX, that wouldn't be an option. I'd try Gimp. It's free, so I'd say it's worth of try at least.
I agree about Gimp. I started doing graphics in PaintShop Pro4 ages ago. Then got ahold of Gimp, used it for a couple years. Just recently, I gave photoshop a try, and found that, although photoshop worked just fine, and was famaliar (because of paintshop), I felt like I had more controll with Gimp. I dare say that Gimp has 90% of the capabilities that Photoshop has. Gimp is free. Gimp is open source. The installer for Gimp isnt 100mb. There are books and tutorials writtin around Gimp. If those dont just scream ''give Gimp a shot'' then i dont know what does....
I hate to say it, but if you are really serious about graphic design at all, I think you're going to have to buy photoshop, and learn how to use it. If you don't have the money right away, go to macromedia.com, and download the trial version. Even if you still don't have the money after the thirty days, you can just delete the program, and redownload another trial.