This is just a thought, and perhaps no-one here can answer the question. But it is important.
Will Adobe guarantee support into the future for files processed with the old PV 2003 - will they still be readable within Lightroom 4, 5, and 6 or whatever?
Lightroom is such a complete editing environment that for many photographs there is no need at all to use pixel editor like PS. You can do the whole thing, from importing the raw file to final print, within LR. So there is a temptation not to bother with exporting to a TIFF as one normally would, but just to archive one's work as raw files with their XMPs. Many people will have a considerable collection of legacy files which were edited using PV 2003. Lightroom 3 beta can read them up and print them out without first converting them to PV 2010 (and the conversion process, as we know, can be problematic with regard to sharpening).
Will future versions be able to do the same, or should we all be converting our existing PV 2003 files to ensure that they will be readable in 5 or 10 years time?
John
