I know of a LOT of outstanding free art software and I thought that others might as well.
I dont know if a BIN is necessarily needed but since other things have that I thought I would ask.
So.
Since I know of all this great stuff and I opened my mouth about it, heres a list of insanely great things:

The best 3D program I have ever seen:
http://pixologic.com/sculptris/

Web based, opensource, 3D sculpting:
http://stephaneginier.com/sculptgl/

Same as above, but changed a bit:
https://labs.sketchfab.c...p;utm_campaign=sculptfab

Very very useful 3D object generator:
http://shapeshifter.io/

Web based loveliness:
http://29a.ch/sandbox/2011/neonflames/#

My friend Taron is brilliant and makes this wondrous paint program:
http://www.taron.de/foru...ee8677416fb41c9e3110a8c2

THIS is fun:
http://www.wondertouch.com/gloodle.asp

A splendid paint program:
http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

Another splendid paint program:
https://krita.org/

This, with a bunch of its plugins, is giving PhotoShop a little competition, I love this program:
http://www.getpaint.net/

An excellent web based photo editing and paint program:
http://pixlr.com/editor/


Thats a good start.....
I will put up more as I think of them, there are SO MANY!

I do not want to include Gimp or Blender in that list because I think they have very serious and deliberate design flaws. Both, are however, serious programs that are very very good at what they are intended for if you can get past an obtuse UI and a nasty learning curve.
What I do not like is software designed to dismay the casual user and in my opinion these two both do that. Both programs are designed from the ground up to be "user hostile".
Having said that I should say that I use Blender on a regular basis, it is the equivalent of Maya and Max and there are a few thing that I can do in it that I cannot do in ZBrush.
Gimp I do not use but I know people who do with tremendous results.

Anyhow heres Blender, may your gods have mercy on your soul:
http://www.blender.org/

And here is Gimp:
http://www.gimp.org/

I know that sounds negative, and I know that Blender is improving lately but after 20+ years it's gotten on my nerves.


Cheers!
Mealea

I think Inkscape is a pretty good answer to Adobe Illustrator.

For the fellow network geeks GNS3 is awesome (especially if you're studying Cisco stuff) the switch emulation is not fantastic but I know a way round this. I like Packet Tracer too, don't worry Cisco

Dia is great for diagrams, for me layer 2 and layer 3 network diagrams, but hey electronics or whatever, this software is a great free answer to Visio.

The grand finale is the mighty Linux. I love Arch it is my favourite distro and favourite desktop OS. Scientific Linux is perfect for parallel computing (as are a lot of distros, but this is a supercomputer distro), CentOS is pretty much Red Hat for free. Great enterprise server or great if you're studying for Red Hat quals (also great for HPC/parallel computing).

I'm sure I'll think of more over time There's tons of great freeware out there.

Peace

Macre

Macre thats awesome, and I forgot InkScape.
Linux is totally obvious but I was thinking mostly of art related stuff, not entire operating systems!
I completely agree with you, Linux and various forms of BSD are absolutely amazing.

Bravo!

Crazy, Blender is now 20 years old? Didn't know that.

@Ufostrahlen:
Are you aware that your text is nearly microscopic?
Its over twenty....
I love it, I hate it and I love hating it, its so amazingly frustrating! But sometimes its SO USEFUL!
AGAGH!!!!

Personally I think.Linux mint is the best Linux distro I've used.

I've followed it since its inception and its gotten better and better.

Check it out if your of the mind to ditch windows but are new to Linux. Its very beginner friendly.

Yes, I did that on purpose. Now it's bigger.

Oops Guess I should have read your first post a little more thoroughly. Great thread, I will give all of this software a try. Check out some of my GNS3 topologies and tell me that's not art Thanks for the thread man.

Peace

Macre

No no, this is terrific, I hadn't thought of Linux which is silly of me. Net and Free BSD are also... or were also great, its been awhile....
Free software is free software, and Linux is one of the pinnacles of that in my opinion.
Also making a network is an art in and of itself, some are simple, some are astoundingly complex, but when one is considered elegant, its art.
I do not however know how to find your "GNS3 topologies" though the concept is intriguing. Where are they?


@Ufostrahlen:
Thanks!
I was squinting so hard the back of my head got stuck in my eye!


@Al-Wasi:
I have not heard of Mint, but I have been out of the loop linux wise for a while, I will look into it right now! THANKS!

Found that on Imgur minutes ago:

Benzyme, no AutoDock & AutoDock Vina?

http://vina.scripps.edu/
http://autodock.scripps.edu/

ahh, forgot about those.

Oh holy cow!
Thats great you guys!
Thanks!

Because the World Chess Championship 2014 currently takes place:

a1pha supports this thread.


There's a reason Arch users are firm in their choice of OS: They understand fully the superiority of the platform and the KISS philosophy, known as "The Arch Way". Once you begin to use the AUR you go though what I can only describe as a transcendental moment; realizing all the free software you could ever want is already packaged for you.

A nice intro distribution to Arch is Manjaro Linux. Beautiful design with a fantastic installer. Any of you who have ventured into Arch realize the primary hurdle is installation. While a pre-packaged distro technically violates "The Arch Way" it is a nice way to get familiar with the OS prior to use.

However, I promise anyone who undertakes this challenge will gain at least one skill in the process. It is worth the effort.

---

One addition to the Linux side of things (Windows support coming soon) since TrueCrypt is no longer active: tomb

If there's anything we've learned from the past few years it's ENCRYPT, ENCRYPT, ENCRYPT!