Good advice on Elements.

Gimp is no easier to use than Elements and much less capable. Elements 10 is really three programs: the Organizer, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and the Editor. Gimp only does some of the things the Editor does. The interface and available resources for Elements are also far superior.

If you do want to enjoy Elements I strongly recommend getting Kelby and Klowkowski's book on it. It differs from all other Elemetns books in that it takes you step by step through getting useful results. I had struggled for three months and was frustrated till I got the book. In three days I was really enoying it. Now I am having a wonderful time with it. There is a huge amount of capabilty so it will take me some time to intuitively do all it can do but now I get great results in a matter of seconds on most things I try.

Meanwhile Picasa is very easy and fun. I compare it to Elements as one might compare the Wright bothers airplane to an F18. Full-on Photoshop might be the F35.