so i get some people asking me about the programs i use and i just reply with "painter". now it has come to me that reply is a little misleading and might get some people into some trouble like i am right now. so read the following copy and paste i found on the painterfactory forum, it pretty much sums it all up.

"As I have often said, Painter IX.5 is the best - in the sense of reliability - of all the Painter versions to date.  Prior versions were obviously evolutionary stages and it would seem that the apex was just about reached in version X.1.  From IX.5 onwards the trend appears to be downward.  New versions appear to be prompted more by financial pressures than any achieved improvements.  Perhaps it needs to be that way if Painter is to be kept alive in the Corel setting.  To me it seems quite evident that the developers' lack of creative (Painter) expertise - and possibly even imagination - does not augur well for a successful version 12, if this is ever to come to anything.   My advice to anyone contemplating an upgrade from IX.5 and X.1 - don't.  Enjoy and improve your competence in working with your current versions and stop dreaming about an ideal Painter which is never going to happen."

now i know painter 10 and 11 has worked great for some people, Ryan Church uses 10, BUT i would advise you not to take any chances, if you have the option to learn PS or painter, i would strongly recommend going for PS as that is the industry standard and painter has a HUGE compatibility issue with 32 bit system, 64 bit system, vista, XP, 7, Mac... just about every fucking thing out there!.  

it's a bit late for me right now as i have only tried to paint with PS a few times and i hated it, and right now i'm in a bit of of a shit with the IT department at work because the work place can only offer painter 11 or PS and using painter 11 is like playing a online game with a dial up connection.

that being said, painter is a great program when it's not lagging or crashing and it does offer an one of a kind digital painting experience.