I use ImageMagik:
https://imagemagick.org/script/download.phpDarktable:
https://www.darktable.org/install/GIMP:
https://www.gimp.org/downloads/All are free, with superb editing algorithms that rival or surpass LR and/or PS. They all run on Win/Mac/Linux. None will be easy as a program you have been using for decades.
But the above all work nondestructively. There are no reviews or comparisons of current versions of any of the above vs LR and/or PS. But and extension or brush that works with PS will work with GIMP. GIMP starts out simple, and it grows by adding modules, extensions, brushes, or activating modes that are turned off by default.
Programs like Picasa and infraview degrade lossy image formats, like jpg, each time an image is altered and saved.
I had about 300 images I needed altered to the same resolution, same outer dimensions on the long side, whether that was the vertical or horizontal, and I needed lossless processing. That job took three minutes with ImageMagik.
I put a laptop on eBay.com. But a dark display is not attractive, and a photo of the actual display looks pretty bad. So, I used my own photo, put it over the display in the laptop photo, pulled one edge down a bit, because the perspective wasn't perfectly 90 degrees on all corners, and ended up with a spectacular image of the display. It is worth 100.00. It sold for 279.00!
That photo edit took about five minutes with GIMP. And I didn't need to open a single menu.
Darktable is a photography workflow application. It is really only absolutely 'necessary' for raw images. It understands the formats of most raw images. If your camera isn't on the list, you just need to take picture in raw format, and upload it on darktable's website.
The developers will reverse engineer the format, and add it to the program. Most raw-image formats are automatically recognized.
This is vs. the camera software, which can read and convert one raw format to a few different compressed formats like jpg.
Darktable organizes and stores images in a structure that makes it trivial to find the image you want, based on how long ago you last opened it, the overall level of lightness or darkness, percentage of skin tone, dimensions, resolution, and I don't know what all else. It also allows one-step back-up to external media.
All of the above allow lossless editing that does not alter the original image. But, the user can choose to overwrite the original image. So, until the user is absolutely sure he has the final product he wants, he can either start over, or back off the changes made, and redo as necessay.
It's all intuitively obvious, right out front, no digging around. And adding text is so simple.I could use GIMP as soon as I opened it the first time. As I've grown in my abilities, I have been able to add to GIMP according to what my imagination requires.