Lightroom is the program that is supposed to compete with Apples Aperture. Personally, I like the raw workflow in Lightroom, I cant use Aperture becuase I have yet to upgrade to a gig of ram in my powerbook (yes I know, 512mb, god help me) However, I used Aperture at a friends house and it seemed rather confusing, im sure though with a coupple of hours tinkering around you could get the hang of it. Right now Lightroom is a free public beta, the current beta version expires in february. It all depends though, if you need all the controls that come with lightroom or aperture, then by all means get it.