Hi The 7th Crest,
I use The GIMP for all of my textures and other photo jobs of the like.
Quote: "whats a good FPSC compatible program that is free"
GIMP is free, BTW, when you say "compatible" all you would need is, I believe, a .ddl and a .tga plug-in to export your textures.
Quote: "with a good tutorial"
You can find lots of tutorials at:
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/Gimp/All/
and at:
http://www.gimp-tutorials.com/
Good Luck
EDIT: By the way, I made my sig in about 10 minutes in GIMP.
Mmmm...sausage and buttermilk...