I'm not a designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like fiddling around with pictures and occasionally make posters and design T-Shirts. I haven't used photoshop in about 5 years or so, I haven't needed to.
The Gimp is one of those tools that covers 80% of your design requirements. Having said that it's not particularly friendly for Photoshop users. An easier version for the transition is GimpShop (http://www.gimpshop.com/), although this hasn't been updated for a while.
For designers I can understand why living without Photoshop is strange, especially if it's the tool you're used to. For most people Gimpshop and The Gimp are more than capable enough, Free software and free to use.
I think the article was more about using code to do the design rather than any image tools. You could replace Photoshop with Gimp in the article and the original arguments would hold.
The Gimp is one of those tools that covers 80% of your design requirements. Having said that it's not particularly friendly for Photoshop users. An easier version for the transition is GimpShop (http://www.gimpshop.com/), although this hasn't been updated for a while.
For designers I can understand why living without Photoshop is strange, especially if it's the tool you're used to. For most people Gimpshop and The Gimp are more than capable enough, Free software and free to use.