good texture programs

I was wondering if:
a. people used texturing programs
b.what programs they used and
c.is it free/what website

thnx alot if u answer these questions

Personally, my goal is to get all aspects of a scene directly from blender. Making some progress in that direction but still a ways to go. Here are a couple of free texture generators that are very usefull

acme online masonry designer http://www.acmebrick.com/md/
wood workshop http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/ww_overview.htm
caustics generator http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/