Paint.NET is quite nice. My dad downloaded it and I've used it once or twice--it seems like an improvement on MSPaint (a rather large improvement, though, mind you.)
Now, of course, besides Paint.NET, everything basically boils down to two choices: the GIMP or Photoshop. If you had money, I'd definitely recommend Photoshop (it's the greatest!) If you lack money (which seems to be obvious from your post), then I'd suggest just downloading the GIMP. Since you already seem to have the GIMP, if you are still unsatisfied, perhaps you could try Paint.NET. But I do think that the GIMP has more features than Paint.NET, so it'd be rather pointless for you to do so.
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