In late 2005, I received an e-mail from a colleague at Apple concerning the release of their product, Aperture. Aperture is a photo-editing program developed with the professional photographer in mind. A few days after getting the e-mail from Apple, I received a message from Adobe announcing the beta release of their new photo-editing program, Lightroom, also geared toward the professional photographer. Betas are software used during the development of applications. Usually only insiders get their hands on these betas. Adobe, however, tried a new strategy with Lightroom. By releasing the beta to the public, they hoped to create a loyal following of Lightroom users before the product was placed on the market. I guess I