Inexperienced and sampling here.
I have a JASC paint shop Pro from years ago and am comfortable in there, like the clone brush. Gimp is here but won't be for long. Tried 2 others that left real fast and don't remember their names, LOL. Corel Paint Shop Pro 7x is here but haven't got into it yet. LR 5 has been getting most of my attention and I like what Julianne Kost shows in her tutorials over at Adobe. Will be loading ACDC soon and maybe Picasa. As far as speed in Lightroom, no problem here that I can see, probably due to solid state drives and a very potent, recently built rig.
Try as many as ya have time to, no coin involved. The whole thing about subscription software has me baffled. Not exactly like having your phone turned off ya know.
Best of luck and have fun finding what suits you.