I take the middle road and use non-quilting software to design my quilts (my avatar quilt included). Excel, Publisher, a photo editing program, Paint, programs that are not intended for quilt design, but work very nicely for it nonetheless. Excel can be set up to be the same as graph paper for instance. I see no reason to buy specialized software, but many people swear by it. If, in the future, I can't live without it, I may reconsider.