Adobe Lightroom 6 beta

2 questions: 

1.  Did they release Lightroom 6 beta to public yet?  My searches keep suggesting that some have it, but I can't seem to find a download.

2. Assuming that Adobe emails beta users early, how do you get on this list? 

Thank you

What Lightroom 6 Beta?

I'm guessing either their is no Lightroom 6 beta and I'm mistaken, or you have not seen it yet?

I'm seeing very little info about Lightroom 6 other than speculation from sources I don't consider reliable.  Adobe typically makes betas and experimental software available through Adobe Labs but there are no hints there that I can find.  You can get on their pre-release program list from the Labs site.

Ahhhhh  okay cool. Thank you both for your help 

The way Adobe has been moving, it's likely to only be available on the cloud anyway...

Screamin Scott wrote: The way Adobe has been moving, it's likely to only be available on the cloud anyway...

I really wish folks would stop using that term.

I think you meant "available under a service arrangement." Adobe CC, et. al., does not run from/in/on the "cloud". Such a stupid, meaningless term.

Gary,  it's not "Cloud" based, why does Adobe call it "Creative Cloud" ?

That would be called "marketing" because "cloud" is buzzy.

The software is downloaded to your computer and runs from there. Updates are applied continually. The software phones home periodically to check on licensing (I've heard every 3 months and every month). There's no "cloud" involved in running it; software has downloaded updates, either manually or automatically, for longer than the "cloud" buzzword has existed.

The only "cloud" involved in CC is online storage. Whether that involves cloud concepts is unclear, because storage is usually static, and the "cloud" also seems to be interwoven with the idea of mobility. Really, the whole idea is kinda stupid because the public is being lead to believe that this thing has a certain form which is not entirely representative of reality.

IMO.

Agreed – but another, and I think, bigger part of “the cloud” is the other, less tangible services that Creative Cloud offers that are very useful to people who use several Adobe products or use them on more than one machine.  A personal subscription allows one to install the software on two devices, e.g. work and home.  Personalized settings can be synced between devices, data such as colour swatches created in one program are instantly available to other programs in the suite. It is easy to switch back and forth and share resources between devices and programs.  It is easy to share files with colleagues/clients.  I didn’t appreciate the benefits of these services until I started using them.

I have often read that the difference between pro and consumer cameras is that pro cameras make image taking easier by “getting out of the way”, e.g. by making key functions available on easily accessible buttons rather than
digging through menus.  The photographer can focus on the image rather than on working the camera.  In the same way, the services offered by Creative Cloud are a step closer to having the machinery “get out of the way”, so a designer can focus on the design and not deal with tech stuff as much.

For a photographer using just Lightroom and Photoshop, Creative Cloud probably doesn’t offer much other than access to the latest versions of the software for $10 a month, a reasonable price I think.  I wouldn’t store my large image library on “cloud”storage.

For people who use several products and want to access assets from several places and share resources there are many advantages and those are the real benefits of “cloud computing”.