$99.99 is peanuts for most skilled computer people.

You don't seriously mean this do you? Do you realise how many skilled computer people are students and have very little money to spend on commercial software? I'm sure you wouldn't argue that Linus Torvalds was a skilled computer person when he wrote the first version of Linux, but he was a student at the time. Trust me, open source/free software is a lifeline to students on limited incomes. And that's not to mention people who are unemployed, or otherwise short of money through no fault of their own.

I hope you are happy when Linux fails due to lack of corporate investment and commercial software.

Linux has so far succeeded without commercial software, what evidence do you have to suggest that it needs commercial software to continue? Yes, there is commercial software for Linux, but the majority of Linux users don't use it. However, I would not argue that companies such as RedHat and SuSE who understand the community and the open source ethos are a bonus to Linux. Even in the absence of companies such as RedHat, there are still non-commercial distributions such as Debian. But at the end of the day, it does not matter whether Linux makes it into the mainstream, I think most of Linux's current users will continue to love it (and use it) anyway. Linux was never intended to be a method of world domination.

Think of Photogenics this way: you are paying $100 for a box, manual, support and feel good factor, and the software is free.

I am quite sure that Photogenics' manufacturers have never thought of Photogenics in this way.

I know that you don't get the source code, but why do you want it? To steal it and put it in the Gimp?

Are you serious? Open source is about more than "stealing code" as you put it. It's about empowering the user. Open source allows the user to find and fix bugs in the software without being reliant on the software company to do this for them.

The Gimp has the most goddammed awful GUI in the world, very illogical and poorly laid out.

A poor workman always blames his tools. GIMPs user interface is very simple to use, if you take the trouble to get used to it.

Gimp will never evolve to be a truly usable program for the end user.

GIMP already is a truly usable program for the end user. Many people already use it, and love it. It is one of the killer apps of the GNU system.