In article , Me
wrote:

I use Nikon Capture NX, but I need healing and patch
tools. A friend suggested I try GIMP. Any comments?

photoshop elements is a much better choice. another alternative is
adobe lightroom, which can edit images nondestructively as well as
manage image libraries.

Why is elements a better choice for that?

it does more and it is much faster than gimp. also, camera raw is
highly regarded and can now mimic the look of other raw processors,
notably the camera maker's own software.