Adobe's Lightroom vs Apple's Aperture

That's a pretty good point that you raise. But one thing you didn't mention that is in Adobe's favor is that Lightroom doesn't have the high system requirement that Aperture has. That alone is what makes me choose Lightroom over Aperture. I can't even run Aperture on either of my computers and they are more than capable of running Lightroom.

One thing apple has mastered is interfaces. Aperture's interface has got to be one of the best in the world.

I do agree with Paradox460 on the interface part. I use most of Apple's pro apps and the usability is something they have mastered. I believe the next year will be very interesting to see which application comes out on top.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to try out both of these applications. I was able to start using Aperture immediately because the interface and tools made sense. This is critical to an apps sucess. When I tried Lightroom, it took time to figure out what I was even supposed to do with it. The menus and tools were confusing and cluttered.

It's a good think Adobe let's your try out the app before you buy... I would be very unhappy if I would have had to pay for it.

Hmmm, going a little off-topic, I noticed you mispelled the tag "Aperture". Should there not be a way to correct that?

I also thought the public beta idea is brilliant, as it not only gets people hooked on their product, it also gets feedback from people who use the product for free over a 6 month period. I've wanted to upgrade from iPhoto but have been wary of spending the dough if i don't feel like I need to. With this public beta out there, I can at least try and see if it's worth buying.

I am still waiting for the Windows version of Lightroom. From what I have seen in the videos it looks amazing.

It is a shame that I can not take a test drive on Aperture. Apple is notorious for not having demos.

By providing a public demo, Adobe can and will listen to what the pros think of the product and implement suggestions if they are good enough for release.

Public beta idea is good but, since nobody mentioned it, you can always go to a Apple store to try out Aperture. They also had it available at MacWorld. Aperture is really for high end users and so it is reasonable to sell it the way they do.

Good point. And Lightroom will take some of the market because of this "trial" with the app. However, Apple will surely release a down-loadable demo of Aperture and will take over the market if the price is right as Aperture is much better than Lightroom.

I think I prefer Lightroom. Working with ai, eps, psd, and pdf images can be a challenge to browse them all and find what I need. This is the perfect solution for me. I wonder if they are going to tie it into CS2 for even more power.

This is the kind of functionality I wanted from iPhoto, but never saw it.

I wonder if they are going to tie it into CS2 for even more power.

and then there is the tie in with flash and dreamweaver... how nice if everything worked seamlessly through either Apeture or Bridge

I agree with Simon that it is very nice to have a functional demo to get used to. I think that is a great marketing tool for Adobe. I think the best thing that will come out of all this is that there will be some (hopefully) healthy competition. That should mean that both Aperture and Lightroom will be be improved, run faster, and possibly even become cheaper. (Yeah, I know, that's kind-of stretching it when talking about Apple and Adobe).
The same "improvement" or whatever you want to call it, should extend into the user interface (especially keyboard navigation. Final Cut is a nice example of an app with some pretty nice keyboard control. I think that is definitely related to its competition. Hopefully both will keep innovating.

I've had the chance to use both applications too and I have to say that I prefer Aperture. It is, however, by a very small margin and it purely comes down to the fact that I found I could do much more with Aperture out of the box than I could with Lightroom. The interface in Lightroom just doesn't feel quite right and I'm awkward when navigating through doing whatever it is I'm doing. However with Aperture I find everything just seems to flow quite nicely, of course you need to have a capable system to run it in the first place and that is where Lightroom will appeal to most users. That and the fact that you don't have to put your money up front to try it out (or live near an Apple store). I took the plunge and I have to say I'm glad I did, but I would've liked Apple to have some sort of Beta to try out and that may ultimately be what limits it's success. This will be even more pronounced if Adobe integrate Lightroom into their other applications too.

For myself, there is no choice. Running a PC means that I will have to wait for the PC version of Lightroom to come out. I believe that this reason alone will allow Lightroom to enjoy a considerably larger market share than Aperture.

I have tried both Aperture and Lightroom, and I am torn between the two. I love Aperture's interface and some of its functionality. I want to use this program everyday, but Apple is keeping me from doing so, and I am disappointed. For one, it's a hog. I run a late-model Powerbook G4. The library runs fine, most of the time, but editing can be slow. Bummer. I also have a hard time with the one library thing. I like non-destructive editing -- very nice. But I keep my library on a portable hard drive because of size. Apple's management of more than one library is awkward because if I start Aperture before the hard drive is up and ready -- or if I want to access the program without the hard drive -- it automatically resets to an Aperature library on my laptop. If I want to go back to the library on the portable hard drive, I have to re-select it in preferences, quit the program, then start it again. Awkward. Aperture also does not reference the original files on the folder, rather it imports them into a library. I could live with this if I had an extra supply of hard disk space. If I stay with Aperture I will eventually need to move the original files off the hard drive to save space, leaving everything inside Aperture. Lightroom lets me import photos into a library OR reference the original files without copying or moving. Nice.

Anyway, while Lightroom's interface isn't as pleasing (it's still a beta), it shows great promise. I have the file storage flexibility I seek, it's not a memory hog, it's fast ... so for now I'm using Lightroom and hoping Aperture will eventually come around.