Recent events have unjustifiably undermined and vilified both Lightroom and Photoshop CC. Both are solid, versatile applications, are good value for money and work well.

The problems with the software started when Adobe wrote extra software allowing both programs to access user’s graphic cards. They (Adobe) did not take into account the great variety of cards across millions of computers, and consequently there were problems. Many computers do not have a separate graphics card and that caused even more problems. It was an easy fix, simply switch off the GPU in preferences, unfortunately Adobe did not reckon on users not knowing about the switch and failed to make users aware of its existence.

The latest glitch was to follow the trend for rectangular apps as seen in smart phones and Windows 8, e.g. square panels to choose from instead of menus. This they incorporated into the Import screen, and their excuse or reason for doing so was that users have long wanted a simplified import procedure.

The big mistake here was that the users that wanted a simplified procedure were the ones who asked for it, the great majority of users were content and therefore did not make any comment at all. The next LR update will put things back as they were.

Again a click or two in Preferences and the annoying square apps just disappear.

Users having problems with Photoshop are, in general, learning how to achieve something different. How to use masks, how to use Perspective Warp, how to make a selection, how to combine layers etc. These are not problems with the software, these are problems solved by study or asking questions to those in the know.

Photoshop works by loading one or more images, working on it or them, saving the finished result. This is how word processors and the majority of other applications work.

Lightroom does not work in the same way as Photoshop, and this is the root cause of most of the headaches that new users get. It is vital to understand what LR does and how it does it before bringing in thousands of images and then getting lost. There are hundreds if not thousands of videos and books explaining the LR concept, and once that is understood, the rest is easy.

I don’t believe for one moment that LR and PS is for everybody, but please don’t ignore them because you think they are seriously flawed, they are not.

What you say is true, but that still should not give the lame-brain engineers carte blanche to change program steps that are working perfectly. I am all in favor of adding on new features to software, but I wish they would leave the stuff that's tried and true alone. There was absolutely nothing wrong at all with the Import function in LR. Been using it for 7 years and it was perfectly elegant and simple. I just wish they would ask us old-timer users first before they try to make changes to satisfy the newbies that are still ignorant about how the program works. Reminds me of trying to dumb down education so everyone can be equal and average.

I'm not sure that is correct. My understanding is that, as a user, your activity can be monitored. Adobe can keep track of what you use and what you don't. Serious photographers tend to turn that reporting function off. The result was that Adobe statistical marketing research was far off the mark.

Added to that was Adobe people tried to observe new users. Many thought that "Importing" put their photos "inside" Lightroom so they could delete the files that were "outside". "Importing" should get a new name like "Registration". But, Adobe saw newbies that were confused so they "fixed" it by taking out all the confusing parts. The trouble appears to be that they didn't actually identify the true source of confusion.