By the time this new version of Photoshop ("CS 3") ships, it will have been about TWO YEARS since the last version shipped. We might hope for Great Changes.

Sadly though, I see only some tidying up, a bunch of gratuitous interface changes that make Photoshop/Bridge look more like... Aperture? And... what else? Non-destructive filters? Very welcome. This is, however, about 3 years late. What the HECK are you folks doing with your time? TWO YEARS!! Explain it to us. I dare ya.

Oh, how I LONG for some competition here. (Yo, Steve! Are you monitoring?)

With this release, the Lightrooom/Photoshop/Bridge mix seems even more confusing.

Why do we still even HAVE Bridge?? -- other than as a "bridge" between the various Adobe "Creative Suite" products. [A "suite,' by the way, clearly created entirely in the minds of the marketed department?] Personally, as primarily a Photoshop user, I think that Lightroom is looking pretty interesting. But I must say that I NEVER use Bridge to view InDesign or Illustrator files! I was rather hoping that Lightroom would just REPLACE that funky Bridge thing! No luck, apparently. Internal politics are SO much showing through in the Product Deployment Map. It's very sad.

Are Bridge, Lightroom and Photoshop nicely integrated? Heck no! They look almost like they were made by different companies! (Hmm) Is anyone in charge here? Is there any over-arching design principles at work? Clearly, "no."

In Photoshop, is Transparency yet a Full Citizen? Can I apply a layer effect or filter to TRANSPARENCY? Nope.

Can I apply a filter (and especially, a CONDITIONAL -nondestructive- filter) to a LAYER MASK? Nope. Buy, hey, I got a cool black background in my Bridge thingy now. I'm so impressed.

Excuse me if I missing either of those feature before Bridge crashed. Let me know... I'd LOVE to see them!!