I was a Windows user for years but kinda got sick of crashes and all. Bought into the MAC hype - blah blah you'll never go back - and picked up my first MACbook. I am somewhat glad but still - after a month - find myself going back to my crappy PC and working on it.
Biggest issue with MAC is the IPhoto. Don't like it. I mean.. you got IPhoto, Event, library, pictures, what is with all these files that my pictures end up in?? The Windows method of photo storage/finding/uploading is easier; much easier.
Second, to much stuff out there that is not compatible with MAC, or MAC versions difficult to use. Downloaded GIMP to work with photos and still cannot figure out how to OPEN Iphoto on it, or pull stuff off my USB memory card reader... if I even can, etc. So... I do photo editing on Windows cuz it is easy! Click OPEN FILE in Gimp, Windows gives me the USB option, and away i go.
There are many many other things I am still not crazy about and am having difficulty using, but I guess it is just going to take time. In the meantime, thank God I still have a PC!!
I kind of feel you on some of these issues, and rest assured you're not the only person who isn't very fond of iPhoto. For what it's worth though, iPhoto is absolutely fine for the casual user who has no expectations or isn't storing thousands of photos for editing etc.. It's for people such as my wife, who ask no questions about what is happening behind the scenes, and only see what is going on right in front of them. It's also for people who don't look into things more than what is being presented to them, and that includes where to store the photos, resizing etc etc..
I personally loathe iPhoto, and have sought out alternative ways to store, organize and edit my photos after having realized that. I'm still up in the air about using either Lightroom 2 or Aperture 2, but am leaning towards LR. And how I get my photos from the cameras to my external (and internal) HD's is:
I plug in a camera (I have both a Nikon D300 and Canon S3IS) and have the app "Image Capture" (which yes, is in the applications folder and is a great app) automatically open (you can set that in its preferences) then download all or some of the photos to a specified folder. Since I have redundant external drives, I have it set for one main drive, then later copy/paste from that one external to the other ones, which I have chain linked via my Airport Extreme. (I have a generic 4 port General Electric USB hub connected to the USB port on the A.P.E., 3 for external drives and the fourth for the wireless printer)
The next step would be to have either Lightroom or Aperture either import photos to its own folder on a separate drive, or perhaps just name a folder in the main external drive (the first one I mentioned) to either Lightroom Pictures or Aperture Pictures and have all subsequent photo folders put in there, to use for the main database for said program(s). Hope that doesn't sound too complicated. I have yet to try the last part, but I'm getting close.
If you want to set a program as the default for opening something, like say a RAW file, right click on that file, select "get info" then at the bottom where it says "open with", change it to which ever app you want, and then make sure to click the "change all" button right below it so that all of the same type files are associated with that program too.
Hope that helps a bit. If I can answer anything else, I'll try.
Doug