There’s also PAINT.net
and GIMPshop - which is basically te GIMp with a revamped UI for Photoshop users
IMO, PhotoPlus comes pretty damned close, especially since it supports Photoshop Plugins.
I don’t think there’s a true alternative. I just use Photofiltre though for my graphics.
I honestly didn’t find any true alternative, something is really cool about Photoshop. At first all the tools seem very daunting but then it gets better.
Photoshop has a really large team working behind it, so the development process and ideas are rapid.
Paint.NET is good and free. I use it occassionally when I don’t have time for Photoshop to load.
I’m also trying Photoshop Elements 6 right now. It’s just as slow to load as CS1 (my version), but I like the changes, and to be honest, I really don’t miss much between CS1 and Elements. The only glaring ommission in Elements is Folders in Layers… can’t expand any CS1 files with folder layers in Elements.
Gimp, and you also have www.splashup.com
yea paintshop pro is handy for quick and easy edits, tho it doesnt rival photoshop
thanks for the link
Of course it will work in your country. why not?
Here’s a few that I recommend:
Pixel. Very photoshop’ish. Runs on every platform known to man (Windows, Mac, BeOS, OS/2+more)
http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12
Paint.NET. Windows only, and great.
http://www.getpaint.net/redirect/wp/index.html
GimpShop. GimpShop is just The Gimp with an Interface lift to look like Photoshop, a GREAT alternative to photoshop.
MS paint! It offers per-pixel editing, giving you complete control over every aspect of your image. Simple to use interface, no thousands of tools to clutter the view. And it saves images in the good old BMP format, for easy interoperability with other old software!
MS paint - The future of graphics apps (as it will be included, and never changed, with every new release of Windows).
Photoshop is a great tool that offers ways to do everything I could possibly want in an image editor.
It is pretty slow to load on my now ageing laptop though, and so Paint.NET is perfect for smaller, simpler jobs.
-Tim
Check out Xara at http://www.xara.com/
You can read and write PhotoSHop files.
Greg Maldewin
Morgan Hill Web Works
Instead of going to US, just why not go to your local Sunday market and chances are that you will find very cheap copies of Photoshop, Flash, DreamWeaver etc. Don’t ask me if they are legal.
It is a decision you have to make.
Thats just classic! 
There is no true alternative to photoshop. It is the industry standard for design work. Fireworks offers it some competition when it comes to web work but when it comes to print work photoshop is the clear leader.
There are many softwares that are used in place of photoshop but are not quite there when it comes to features and functions like ‘Corel Paint’. I never believe that GIMP is an alternative to photoshop. I have used it. To be honest it doesn’t offer any competition to photoshop. The only advantage that GIMP has over photoshop is that it is an open source software.
Have you tried Corel Photo-Paint? It’s part of the Corel Draw Suite (the alternative to Illustrator). Photo-Paint is the alternative to Photoshop.
The closest thing you’re going to find as far as working like PS and having similar features is Pixel. That being said, I don’t know if there’s even an official release of that yet.
However, you’re never going to find a true alternative to PS in the sense that it does everything PS does almost exactly like it does. Why would someone make software like that; Adobe already owns the market? I found this out through a lot of trial and error and eventually just put up the cash for CS3 when it went UB. With a student discount it was only $700 for the whole Web suite.
Corel PhotoPaint is great. It is well up there in the Photoshop league except that it didn’t make it as market leader, probably because Corel do such a lousy job of promoting it.
It’s part of CorelDraw Graphics Suite X3 (the current incarnation), which includes CorelDraw (vector), PhotoPaint and other stuff. A fraction of the Adobe price for largely the same thing - certainly as far as the typical web designer is concerned. Sells for GBP386.58 (about USD770) direct from Corel, probably less from Amazon etc.
Of course not being the industry standard means it can be harder to interact with other designers or organisations, but if that is not a priority - and it isn’t for me - it is a superb solution. 
Paul
PhotoPaint X3 is very very close to PhotoShop. People that have never REALLY used PhotoPaint will very quickly snear at it but when it is compared on an objective basis the two are in the same league. You can buy the entire Corel suite (which gives you a bunch of programs) for less than most of the single Adobe products.
Many Adobe addicts have looked at earlier version of PhotoPaint (which have not always been all that great) and now slate it as useless. It even has a skin to make it look more like PhotoShop for those who just cannot be without their favorite baby.
I agree with Unit 7285 in that Corel really have no clue when it comes to promotion, but please don’t let obscurity or some fanatics cause you to look elsewhere. Give it a try, you won’t be sorry.