When first released Aperture did have some serious shortcomings which are commented on in the article. However it has moved on a long long way since this was written to largely become what it promised in that early version. However some of the comments do, to be fair, still hold true. Not many, I agree, but still some of significance in the broader scheme of things - it's Mac only (a good thing in my view!), RAW support for new cameras is still hopeless, metadata support could still be improved (couldn't it always?) and so on.
I remember comparing Aperture and Lightroom not long after this article appeared, used Aperture for a while and got frustrated with its shortcomings, then moved to Lightroom but just couldn't get on with the interface, then moved back to Aperture and have stayed with it ever since. However, given all the obvious effort Adobe have put into continuing Lightroom development I want to be sure Apple will sustain Aperture. I have no real need to upgrade Aperture as it works very well for my purposes, but I wish Apple could be re-assuring about its future.
I know one should never say never, but interested to re-read Michael's final summary paragraph (remember, this was in January 2006):
[blockquote]"But if Apple were to ship a version of Aperture tomorrow that met my needs I'd adopt it in a flash, and given Apple's track record I imagine that that day may well yet come. In the meantime I'm going to keep Aperture on my computer, will buy all of the updates and upgrades as they become available, and will keep you informed of what I discover as time passes. Someday may come sooner than we think."[/blockquote]
I wonder how far away that day is?