Pngs with alpha

Ive got some pngs which have obviously got an alpha channel in them. When i load into psp i get all kinds of weird patterns where the alpha bit should be.

Anyone know of a good paint package that can do i guess its 32bit pngs?
Ive got gimp on my linux machine but have never used it, is it capable of this, i havent got the time to waste learning it if it doesnt. Is it any good?

Yes you can do it with The Gimp and it is good.
But you must first learn to work with it.
First I used it not so often, but meanwhile I use The Gimp
as my main grafic tool

There's also a modified version of The Gimp called GimpShop, which gives it a photoshop look & feel: http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294

Hahaha, in PSP, the chequered pattern is the alpha channel :) To prove:

Create a new layer,

Paint on the layer,

move layer to bottom.

See? :)

heh, Gimpshop looks kind of cool, don't know what I'd do without photoshops layer styles and what have you though.