I started out with Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7, then PSP 8, once my free trial ended. I got my hands on a free copy of Adobe Photoshop 7. I loved it so much, but we reformatted and I lost it. So as of right now, I have NOTHING! But I'm getting Adobe Photoshop back, soon, hopefully.

For a beginner? Depends. I wish I had started with Adobe because it has more features, IMO. But, PSP is semi-easy to learn about and such. I'd start out with a free trial of PSP, preferably 7, 8, or 9. It's so much fun to goof around on it... I've been doing this for a while, and I'm still not very good!