As others have echoed here and I was getting at in my original post, I don't doubt that the MC programming and development staffers are talented and well-meaning.
It's just that in my many, many years of computing, I have *NEVER* seen a swiss-army-knife program actually have consistently top-notch components.
And someone mentioned MS Office?! For shame! That's one of the most hideously bloated and problematic "does-everything" products I've ever had the misfortune of working with! Outlook's e-mail functionality is mediocre at best, for instance. And the security issues? The crashes? Ack!
I guess what particularly frustrates me is that MC doesn't get the praise and attention it well-deserves at present for its music capability, largely, I think, because it's now pigeonholed into the "all-in-one" category that is so understandably despised by the majority of computer users based on past experience.
I am a musician and a life-long geek, and I had just heard of MC recently. I mean, really, what does one usually hear about when music software comes up: MusicMatch (ack!), RealOne, WMP, WinAmp, etc. With MM and WinAmp in particular, these programs are focused nearly 100% on music, and so they largely own the space.
I don't want a program that is filled with code that enables me to handle my music very well, and also offers some (but not extensive) capabilities to handle photos, documents, etc. I want a program that is 100% sleekly designed to handle my music in the most efficient, powerful way.
Folks have said that MC, as a broad do-everything-with-media program, is still in its infancy, so it's unfair to bring up Jasc, Adobe, etc. No, it's not unfair, IMHO. Trying to aspire to these companies' efforts in the photo space is likely to backfire for a few reasons:
1) With a split focus (music / images), JR will be unable to effectively hone in on the big guys and capture substantial market share.
2) In order to offer superior music AND superior imaging capabilities, MC -- by default -- will become either inefficient / confusing, with irrelevant options, or it will essentially become two separate programs with two different option/view emphases; why not just make two different programs?
3) I just don't think there's a market for it, and losing the music focus on MC will confuse or scare away potential customers. Can anyone point to ANY successful software package that integrates music and photo management? If you took a survey today amongst power users (clearly the target of MC), how many would really want to have both their images and music managed in the same place? Album art, maybe. But photos of their recent Heidelberg trip? Their kids? I just don't see it.