Adobe launches public beta of Lightroom 3 (free until April 30, 2010)

Adobe has just launched an open public beta for Lightroom 3. Anyone, regardless of Adobe software ownership, can download it and use it for free until April 30, 2010. That's over six months of free Lightroom 3 beta.

This is a savvy move by Adobe, as it can get photographers "hooked" on LR3, and after six months of usage, a percentage of the free trial users may find it hard to say "goodbye". As you may recall, ACDSee tried a similar approach a few months ago for their flagship product Pro 3 (the ACDSee promo has expired). A coincidence perhaps that the LR3 beta starts right as the ACDSee beta ends :)

Reactions in the blogosphere
+ Inside Lightroom
+ Lots of details by Terry White
+ digital camera review
+ dpnow
+ CNet's Deep Purple blog
+ Lightroom News
+ Photoshop Insider with Scott Kelby
+ introductory video at Photoshop User

Notes on the Beta software [New!]
+ does not read, upgrade or import catalogs from other Lightroom versions [says Adobe's download page note]
+ works independently alongside other versions of Lightroom [says Adobe's download page note]
+ download size is 120MB for Windoze, and 68MB for Mac (ZIP files)
+ at 2:36am EST on Thursday the download speed is around 300KB/sec
+ installs without problems on Windoze (does not require reboot!)
+ uses about 400MB of main memory when you start it up
+ that's all the testing for now, Project ZzZzZz awaits...