Is the Nikon Capture NX2 software any good?
IIRC, there's a 30 day trial version out there, at least I had one. Used it about twice until it expired, which should answer your question.
I use it, but only because I have to. I've tried opening RAWs in Photoshop, but the photos aren't the same as they are when you open them in Capture. Some of the Nikon-specific features (active D-lighting, etc) only show up in Capture. The software itself is a POS.. really slow, crashes sometimes... but I don't have a choice.
i use the trial version, and its been going for a few months now. its good. but im happy using adobe bridge and photoshop cs3