[cageface]

Both the Gimp and Photoshop are actually pretty lousy for UI/web development. Fireworks is much better but Adobe seems to be neglecting it. I don't really see much hope for a free alternative to displace PS any time soon but an app that was designed from the ground up to make designing interfaces easier might find a niche.

[calinet6]

Honestly, the improvements in HTML5/CSS3 (including font-face) make translating graphical mockups into coded web designs much easier. There's a lot less image slicing and a lot more logical markup.

I love Fireworks, but I find myself using it less and less often. Usually I can look at a design straight from a designer who went wild in Photoshop and Illustrator, and make it look extremely close using nothing but HTML and CSS and images only where you'd expect image content.

As much as we like to complain, the web landscape has improved considerably.

[cageface]

With the huge number of form factors and display types applications have to support these days I think the kind of pixel-perfect UI design we've gotten used to from PS and FW is going the way of the dodo. Interfaces need to be able to adapt and the pretty but rigid products of that school of design are just too inflexible.

I do think there is an opening here for design tools that can help create declarative UIs in a more visual way though.

[swah]

I wish I could say the same, but every time some site surprises me with its design, I go to inspect it and it has those background patterns, box shadow and sprites pngs sprinkled all over.