Another good freebie is Fractal Explorer. It has lots of controls to "tweak" to come out with a very unique fractal. It also has many "spot" files that can be loaded (fractal images that have been created by someone else); these can be changed until you have an image soley your own. I think its novice-friendly...from experience! you can find the program here: http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/index.html