If you guys hate MS Paint, not sure if anyone here knows about this yet, but Graphics Gale is an excellent option.

 It's basically to Paint what Gimp is to Photoshop. Only better. lol.

There's a paid version and a free version. There's no real difference between the two, except you can't save as an animation in the Free version, but that's what GIMP and other programs are for, aye?

 I've downloaded it multiple times on multiple computers and haven't had any trouble virus-wise at all. c:

Anyways, I noticed there wasn't a "Resources and Informational" sticky so I'll just go out and post this for those of you who are interested.

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

It's fairly easy to understand and use. Not quite as easy as MS paint, but hey, what can you do. Beggars can't be choosers. ;)

For the rest of you, here's some great free programs for other things.

SAI Paint Tool-

An easy to use, lightweight digital art program.

30 day free trail at http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/ or a free fan-made version from http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/.

 I bought the full version, and love it dearly. GREAT to use with or without a tablet!

GIMP- I'm sure most of you know about this already.

Free Image editing software.

http://www.gimp.org/

OpenCanvas

A great, free, software program for creating digital art.

http://wistinga.online.fr/opencanvas/

Inkscape- Same as others. 

http://www.inkscape.org/

Paint.net- Same as others

http://www.getpaint.net/

All of these run on WINDOWS, however, if you have "Wine" on Linux they can be run on Linux as well.

There are many more free progams avalible out there, too! Let me know if you find one and i'll update the list. ;3

Theres also Alchemy and Art Rage ;o alchemy has lots of cool effects and stuff~ awesome for doodling or sketching

 And lol,SAI is easy?I tried it once,it confused me majorly D; i like Photoshop better.getting Flash would be the epicest though

Paid software is better than free ones in my opinion. Flash and photoshop is really all I use. 

I hate art rage. It's like some joke compaired to other software. It's more of a toy rather than a tool.  I don't need some fancy software to create effects for me. I'd do it all old-school, y'know hand painted (it's sort of confusing anyways). 

I'll add those to the list in a bit, flash.

Lola, I've not tested out most of those up there with my tablet yet since Sai has pretty much been the only thing I've needed, but I will test them out and get back to you on that.

For most people drawing is a hobby and the drive nor the ability to pay hundreds of dollars for the more 'professional' programs is there. It's more than possible to obtain cracked versions of the same software on the internet for free, but I won't be adding links to such ware as it's destroyed many a computer before.

Paid software in this day and age will be more powerfull than free software.

Otherwise the free stuff wouldn't be free. Whether you think it's a toy or not, most people are just looking for something to get them started, at least.

If you don't need 'fancy software' to do your effects, free programs would provide you with pretty much all you need. A way to get colored pixels on your screen.

I've seen true masterpeices created in MS paint that far surp*censored* what most people can do on photoshop or any other program that requires cash to be paid.

It's the artist talent that really makes the difference, not the program.

Photoshop is basically what I started with, so I'm pretty much comfortable with it. But SAI ain't free anyways, you've got to pay for it. I've tried most of these software. But all I'm saying is that I wouldn't recommend art rage if you're actually drawing for drawing (rather than for scribbling on the screen). You don't have the opportunity to use most tools that most graphics software offer.

I know it's not the software that makes the art. I've seen loads of people who have had access to extremely powerful software and can't do much at all. I've even done a few works using just MS paint and a mouse that I quite like. But as someone who has had around 5 years of experience in digital art, I wouldn't recommend free software. If you have the chance to use something that's paid, you shouldn't rely on the free stuff.

Oh and a really popular free software I know would be blender (just to add to the list). Lots of people recommend it (for 3D rendering and animation), but I've no idea how to use it. It's really hard to figure out how to make anything in the first place.

PS. I didn't really have hundreds of monies to spend on powerful software anyways, 98% of media in Brunei is pirated. I paid $20 for photoshop. I'm such a cheater XD