Some replacement applications that I actually use
These are all Windows applications, and I use them under Vista on my MacBook Pro. Yes I like the Macbook Pro, but I can’t use OSX because it’s too painful. Anyhow, all of the following refer to Windows applications.
I’m not a graphic designer, but I do have to use Photoshop occasionally for production work. It’s ludicrously expensive. I mean, you get a boatload of stuff if you buy CS3, including Flash if you buy the right version, but it’s really really expensive. Paint.NET is a Photoshop-like program, written in C#/.NET, free, source included, etc.
This is faster, and uses less resources than Adobe’s PDF Reader. Free. I’d imagine it supports less “stuff” than the Adobe version, like the forms and all that, but I don’t know. What I do know is that it doesn’t take 30 seconds to load and shows me PDFs.
PDFCreator
PDFCreator is free, and creates PDFs. It acts as a printer driver and has plugins for some applicationss. Has a few weird issues under Vista, but mostly works fine. And it creates PDFs. And doesn’t cost $400 or make you think about which version of Adobe CS3 you are going to have to get to maximize your money dollars. Oh, and it creates PDFs.