Peter Krogh on Adobe Lightroom:

The spread of digital photography has brought a different set of imperatives to the development of imaging software. Challenges that were faced by few people three years ago are now commonplace. The central issue is no longer, “how do I make an image look the way I want it to”, but rather, “how do I deal with all these ^%#*& files?”.

The more I've thought about Lightroom today, the surer I feel that our biggest problem isn't new raw conversion interfaces or capabilities. It's managing, grouping and finding the files in the first place. So I think Peter's spot on.

I'm a little, well a lot, more cynical about Adobe's spin on releasing Lightroom as such an early public beta, and at this stage only for the Mac. Cynical, though not at all critical, and it reminds me of the early days of Macromedia Dreamweaver which I've always thought was a model for developers interacting with users and rapidly improving the product.

I'm eager to get my hands on Lightroom, but it'll be a while before the beta will be on the PC. In one sense that doesn't worry me as I always like software that's developed to Mac usability standards. But I'm impatient to have my say. Since Peter quotes my line about the relationship with digital asset management software being like serial monogamy, for us PC users it's as if Lightroom's a pretty face you've spotted at the other end of the bar and you've got to wait till the Mac users have finished whispering in her ear before you get your chance….