cmarshall - 2:39 pm on Mar 5, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm in the graphics software business.

You won't get pro-level OSS graphics software, simply because all the good algorithms are patented up the yin-yang.

I remember a good Pascal app in the eighties that was developed for medical imaging, and that was the last "pro-level" OSS app I've seen.

You will be able to get quite a few "sub-pro" packages, but you just won't be able to get the speed and accuracy of a pro app without forking over some duckets for a compiled binary.