Re: Photoshop
Are you kidding? I still use CS2! CS3 might as well have been a plugin package for what little it offered over 2, and while 4 has some nice features like 3D painting, I couldn't stand the interface.
Anyway as someone else already suggested, you should use GIMP. I mean it's one of those things where.... if you have to ask, then Photoshop probably isn't for you. It's definatly far too expensive, even going back to older editions, for beginners.