Without a doubt the most established image manipulation software on the market is Photo shop, does any one use another image manipulation software that is not as expensive as but as good as photo shop ?
every one knows it
you can also say they are the king of graphic softwares and for a long time now
Yeah I would have to agree about photoshop!
No free image manipulation software comes to my mind!
Photoshop is what is called the industry standerd. this is why everyone uses it.
I have heard good things about Paint Shop Pro, but I am broke, so I can buy neither. I use the GIMP
www.gimp.org -free

although not nearly as good as Photoshop.
Gimp is quite a respectable image manipulation software
Try fireworks. I really like it, but I use Photoshop most of the time.
BigZ
what is the difference between fireworks and photo shop? I know they are made by different companies, I mean in terms of functunalities, if photoshop significanly better than fireworks?
Photoshop has extreme popularity. This means that there are more websites, more tutorials, more forums, more images... you get the point.