Adobe Lightroom Beta 3 is out

[Chuck Fry]

Still no Windows build yet, but the Mac OS X version is a Universal Binary. Beta 3 expires in January '07.

More info here:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

[Daniel Harrison]

When do you think they will get a PC version out? I wonder why they are going mac first? Probably because of Aperture.. to keep people from investing in it? I would love to have a tinker with it but I only have PC's.

Will look forward to its development!

[Chuck Fry]

I have no idea. Adobe employees on the Lightroom discussion boards are saying the company is "working day and night, literally" to get the Windows version out. There are a lot of Windows users who would like to play with it.

Aperture's hardware requirements are frighteningly expensive. The MacBook I just bought is not one of the supported systems! Between that and the extended beta playtime for Lightroom, Adobe has hooked themselves a customer. Now how do I justify buying an upgrade to Photoshop CS3 as well?

[Daniel Harrison]

Thanks Chuck,
That kinda confirms what I expected. I am glad that they are working on a Windows verson though! I will look forward to it! As for justifying CS3 I'll be happy if I can pull off CS1 :-)
Daniel

[Stan Jirman]

I wonder why they are going mac first? Probably because of Aperture.. to keep people from investing in it?

That, and it's easier :)

[Chuck Fry]

My theory is that Adobe is using Lightroom as an experiment in using Apple's current developer tools. Adobe faces some major hurdles in moving development of its Creative Suite products to them.

I'm not sure why it would be easier to build an app for Mac OS X than for Windows, if it has to run on both systems eventually. There have been a number of complaints that the Apple developer tools are not nearly as good as the 3rd-party cross-platform stuff (Code Warrior in particular) that many developers used in the past.

[Stan Jirman]

Maybe the dev tools are lacking, but the development kit, with which you write the app, matters a lot. Lightroom is a Cocoa app, vs. all the other Adobe stuff that's Carbon (1980s style APIs). That matters a lot.

[Daniel Harrison]

Stan that is interesting. I do hope that through Adobe taking over Macromedia they learn how to have a progam that starts up quickly. Adobe programs are the biggest fatest meanest things out there! But they do work!

Maybe they will do linux next ;-)

[KrisCarnmarker]

IMO, if its one thing MS does very well, its developer tools, so I don't think its so much a matter of developer tools. I remember reading something about Lightroom taking advantage of new features in Windows Vista. So my guess (and that's only what it is) is that due to Vista's postponement, Adobe is forced to rethink and work around that little niggle.

[Alain Briot]

I wonder why they are going mac first?

Macs make you more creative and are more fun ;-)

[David White]

Macs make you more creative and are more fun ;-)

Them's fightin' words Alain. ;-)

On the other hand, you may have a point about creativity and fun. We got very creative with my daughter's old iMac after she moved back to a PC after a year on the iMac. We made it into a planter.

[Sid Jervis]

Them's fightin' words Alain. ;-)

On the other hand, you may have a point about creativity and fun. We got very creative with my daughter's old iMac after she moved back to a PC after a year on the iMac. We made it into a planter.
David you shouldn't be that cruel to your Daughter, taking away her Mac ;-)

[John Beardsworth]

Perhaps the question about platforms should be directed at Apple for releasing Aperture that won't run on most computers, not Adobe for testing their new medicine on Mac users first (for perfectly understandable commerical reasons).

CreativeGuy (http://www.jdempsey.com/mac-vs-windows-a-designers-perspective/#more-511) and ideasonideas (http://www.ideasonideas.com/2006/05/think_different/#more-83) if you want more thoughts on this creativity thing.

John

[Michael Tapes]

IMHO, Apple has a right to design for their platform, jut like RawShooter or QImage is designed for the Windows platform. It is a free marketplace.

I am a Windows guy, but I just bought a new 17" Mac Book Pro to run Aperture, Lightroom, and Final Cut Pro. I run RawShooter and all of my business work on Windows. Since the new Apple hardware can run Windows and Mac OS, I think I made a great choice, and the PowerBook is even faster running Windows than my Windows Desktop with AMD 64x Dual core 4400+. I can definitely see the potential for me to change my desktop machine to a MacTel when the powerful desktop machines come out.

[John Beardsworth]

Sure they have the right, but IMHO it's a weakness of the product that it won't run on most computers (including many Macs, I hear).

John

[Michael Tapes]

Yes, you are correct that you must have massive Mac HW plus a super graphics card (GPU) to use Aperture efficiently.

[Rob.Martin]

Mac G4
Powerbook 17"
2GB RAM
89000 Photos to put in the gallery....
hehe
New Powerbook coming this week I feel.
Rob

[Chuck Fry]

I spent most of Sunday going through about 300 photos I took at Santa Maria Speedway on Saturday night. Lightroom made it, well, maybe not an enjoyable task, but certainly painless. My MacBook has its limitations - screen size being one of them - but CPU speed is not an issue.

The more I use Lightroom, the more convinced I get that I'm going to have to buy it when it is commercially released.

[Michael Tapes]

Lightroom will clearly be an exciting product. As will Aperture and RawShooter. It will be an interesting and fun 2007 for photographers.

[Dierk Haasis]

Only if we rather sit in front of our monitors instead of taking pictures ...