Hello,

Here I would like to give suggestions for easy forum use.

For drawing you can use the gimp:
http://www.gimp.org/
For the ones that like photoshop, but don't want to pay a lot of money, there is a shell for the gimp, called gimpshop, to make it act like photoshop:
http://www.gimpshop.com/

For reading the various image files you can use xnview:
http://www.xnview.com/en/

If you come accross a zip or rar file, you can use 7zip to unpack it:
http://www.7-zip.org/

For circuit simulation LTspice is often used here:
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/

Bertus

 

Thanks Betus. I'm going to give gimp a try. Maybe this should be a sticky?

 

I find Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/en/) to be a very good general purpose drawing package and with less of a learning curve than gimp.

 

Hello,

To be honest, I am using mosttimes KolourPaint for making my drawings:
http://kde.org/applications/graphics/kolourpaint/

The only drawback is that it is only available for linux systems with a KDE desktop.

Bertus

 

Draftsight.. A free Autocad alternative. Functions virtually the same.
http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight/overview/

and of course
Diptrace.. Schematic Capture/PCB layout software (freeware version..up to 300 pins and 2 layers..full libraries,etc..).. IMO very easy to use.. I'd recommend it over Eagle any day hands down.
http://diptrace.com/

 

I routinely use vector drawing programs such as Intaglio (Mac only, like me) and have looked at Inkscape as mentioned above. I much prefer the device-independent resolution and other benefits of drawing instead of painting.

I've just started dabbling in LTSpice and I'm trying to force myself to learn it.

A few years ago I was comparing the free Mac versions of Eagle and Diptrace and posted a comment in a thread on a related topic, noting the better assistance for a beginner from Diptrace.