True enough, as I've been using Photoshop since it was called Knoll Photoshop (before Adobe bought the program rights), I can safely say that PS7 is perhaps the most intelligent upgrade yet. I can't say it was quite as sexy an upgrade as the version 5 to 6 transition which introduced Liquify and enhanced the Extraction utility along with all the new layer effects...but it certainly is the smartest. There is one thing that upgraded in Photoshop 7 that Adobe didn't even know about, and apparently, I brought it to their attention at the Seybold Conference last month...Since the program was developed with OS's like XP and OSX in mind, the memory management system was upgraded considerably to handle itself more responsibly. This doesn't sound like much, until you figure that the upgrades extend to previous OS's as well (I'm running Mac OS9 on a really old machine). Photoshop, surprise, is a memory hog. It takes as much memory as it can possibly handle, and then takes a little more. 7 does the same thing, except unlike its predecessors, it puts it back when it's not using it, meaning that when Photoshop isn't the active application and isn't working on anything (running a filter or something), it surrenders the RAM back to the system as though it wasn't running at all. Plus, while the program's active, it actually manages its own processor allocations...leaving the system to do more important things. So to sum up, typically newer versions of software require more RAM to operate, and usually slow down older systems...this is the first update that does the opposite. It's even repaired memory leaks caused by other programs (Internet Explorer and Quicktime Player being the two biggest culprits) when it needs to access the leftover memory that they didn't put away upon quitting. For people trying to save time and increase productivity, I'd say PS7 is one of the wisest investments you can make...just be sure that you also invest some time and effort into getting trained with it. Getting a program like Photoshop to appear professional, without getting trained with it, will make one look like an idiot. I've seen it happen...it's not pretty. (It is a bit funny, though.)