@skabeep, open-source software has many benefits over commercial software. It is usually free (as in, you don’t pay for it, especially for personal use). It is coded by enthusiasts who tend to care about the user-interface. There is usually a large and active support community. Finally, access to the code means that if I don’t like a particular feature, I can change it to suit my needs. It also makes it a lot easier to extend the software to do something specific, or to embed it in other applications.
@tonedef, thanks for the recos!