I wrote a while back how much I liked iView Media Pro for managing my images. I was very sad to learn that Microsoft has acquired iView Media Pro. I don’t like using Microsoft software for many reasons, their objectively documented violation of the Sherman Anti Trust Act among them.
Will I have to go looking for a replacement, or eat my words and actually use software from Microsoft in a creative context? One thing, no matter what digital asset management software you use, make sure you are not trapped by it, that your metadata and images are always stored in an open and accessible non-proprietary form of storage. Because iView allows me to sync the metadata in their catalog with the metadata in the JPEG file headers, I am not trapped using iView Media Pro and I’m free to consider other options without alot of hassle making the move. I’m concerned that after the acquisition, iView Media Pro may start to take on the quality of other Microsoft products: bloated, feature-rich, and laden with bugs and other problems.
So here’s the conclusion to the story: I eventually decided to move to Aperture and I love it. Very cool interface, excellent functionality. You can use it as a “factory” and export all of your images to a non-proprietary archive. One down-side is that it really needs a Dual Processor G5 or better to run well, and it uses the capabilities of the graphics card, so it runs better on the newest Macs. But then again, Apple software exists in part to give Mac users a reason to upgrade to faster and faster hardware.