Aperture 2 vs. Lightroom 2

I've been meaning for ages to get off Lightroom CC after it caused me to lose a few hundred images last year, and this week's 5.4 "sorry we deleted your pictures" update has finally prodded me into it.

The Downloader is predictably terrible — I have 500gb (how did I manage that) to download and after an hour it's still sitting at 1%.

I'll figure out where to go next after this. I've been using Lightroom since v1. Capture One seems to be the only serious alternative, right?

i switched from lightroom to apple photos and honestly it's fine for my purposes. the developing side is more than i need. the organization is a little basic but fine. it knows about live photos and all the other weird shit that comes out of an iphone.

Adobe finally updated LR so it remembers which preset you’re on when you step away and come back

Okay so moving to M1 Mac means my old copy of Lightroom no longer works. And I'm not paying for a subscription. Anyone have a recommendation?

Right now I'm tempted to just write a script to make the right folders in the photo library and copy images from the SD card, then use Pixelmator on individual images I give a shit about. (I don't shoot a ton any more, although that will change if my family situation turns out as I expect it to.)

A pro I know swears by Affinity (which is about $60?) but it’s not an organising tool; not sure what else there is for that. I still have a basic version of Capture One knocking around - apparently that can convert Lr catalogs.

I can understand not wanting to give Adobe a tenner a month for the rest of time but I can’t switch, not now. And AI masking in the latest version is really good.

i switched from lightroom to apple photos and it's been fine