On one hand, I kind of hear what you guys are saying about iPhoto's strict file management. But on the other hand I don't agree. iPhoto is supposed to *replace* the Finder for your photos. It is supposed to be the only place you go to find, view, edit, print, email a photo. If you need more image editing capabilities, just set the editor to Photoshop or whatever.
Some of us may not like this total control that the software has, but most home users will praise it.
The only time I find iPhoto and it's library/folder structure annoying is when I need to upload a pic to the web for ebay. It is difficult to remember the month when you took that pic and then the day...I have to navigate thru in the file selection dialog to find the pic. But for me, this is a rare task and one that I can live with.
What else are you guys doing that you can't just use iPhoto as the single way to get to your images? You need to email someone a pic? Open iPhoto, find the pic, email it. Need to edit a pic? Open iPhoto, find the pic, edit it. For me, the only other downside of iPhoto as a Finder is the speed of iPhoto. I'd like to see an option where you don't have to display thumbnails--you could just see column view, like Finder. There would be a quick button and key combo to then switch from column view to thumbs. Basically bring more of Finder into iPhoto's Organize tab.
If you'd rather create your own folder structures and manually organize your photos then more power to you. I did that under Windows for years and I'm not going back. I think you are in the minority there and you are definetly not Apple's target market for iPhoto. That doesn't make you guys wrong and Apple right, it's just that this is a app for soccer moms and grandparents.
I'm hoping that MWSF brings an iPhoto update with more speed and nested folders. Maybe we'll see "Photo Express", a mid-range photo organization/editing app that uses more of CoreImage. But I'm sure this would annoy Adobe.
