I got myself LightRoom 4, and I'm starting to shoot RAW when the light conditions are difficult ;-)

Thanks Paolo. I know it comes down to personal preferences too, but I don't like the Gimp at all - I'd rather pay for a better (ergonomy) interface - and in my personal experience it's not very stable on windows. And for my needs on the average I'd rather have a Picasa on steroids, I almost never need the power of a Photoshop-like tool!

will definitely look IDImager up... I really had never heard of it!

mmmh and what happened to two answers that were there beforehand?

@ to an unknown: thanks for the downvote without any comment/explanation/suggestion on improving (or closing) the question. You definitely know how to make stackexchange a better place.

thanks for your feedback on LR! I am quite used to separate Develop and Library for having used Cyberlink PhotoDirector 3. I don't mind too much, usually those two modules correspond to different mindsets. I'm not good enough at photo editing for me to be worth using Photoshop - I would most likely do destructing ending in the artistic sense of the term :)