One more free and powerful programm with friendly interface and easily (intuitively) understandable is Fractal Explorer. Pretty functional and the brilliant result of using it You can see at Arend's (aka Fractelaar) Gallery! Really just give a try and You'll FEEL what is Yours - each of us has specific creative approach and experience and the choisedepends most of all upon Your personal prefernces and specific features of Your mind. I've achieved some results in Fractal Explorer in no time (less than a month) without reading anything (help, tuts, etc) and Fractal UF is still a monstous application for me despite I've spent lots of time on tuts, help, questions etc. Have a good luck and looking forward to seeing Your masterpieces in Fractal Gallery. -Anthony.