Try a real link pl0x and this looks fairly interesting.
http://krita.org/It looks nice, it's like an open source clone of manga studio almost, I do disagree with you though about using this kind of software with a cheap tablet, unless you have amazing hand-eye coordination you will be much better off with a Cintiq because in order to make great lines with line weight you have to be able to properly see where you're drawing and what you're doing, with something like a bamboo tablet ( which is what I use ) it's very unwieldy because you have to essentially blind draw as you're looking at the monitor while drawing at the same time, Cintiq's are much like digital paper in this respect.
Don't know who these guys are that made this and this is the first I've heard of it, are they people who have gotten fed up with the overprice software and made an open source version or something?
Krita is not new. What changed with 2.8 was a Windows version. Before it was Linux only. Now with enough capital they will push for OS X for 2.9
Obviously the best tablets are the one you are describing. The thing is, people used to do fine the old fashion way as I do with my cheap monoprice.com tablet now, or simply drawing with my mouse all the way back to the Degas Elite + Atari ST days.
If money is not a problem a wacom cintiq is the best solution. Yes.
http://krita.org/faqI added the kickstarter link I forgot to include in my post.
