Design:
Started with MSPaint
Now use Fireworks.
Photoshop (have been req to use by companies; its ok)

Tried Gimp, Paint Shop Pro, blender, anim8tor, 3d studio max but never liked them (thats just me)

Programming:
Started with notepad
Switched to metapad (has more features than notepad but just as simple. The transparent features is the best)
Now using Notepad++ (simple but has tons of really nice features)
** all of these are free biggrin

Tried Dreamweaver and frontpage but just could not deal with the nasty code hehehe (No insults to anyone who uses it; but it "can" make things a lot faster to develop. It just depends on what you are doing.)

FTP:
Always used WS_FTP but rarely uses FTP any more
I use WinSCP with SSH instead (more secure and connection never is lost)