Q: So to get Photostream to operate with iPhoto...

The deal? If you wnat to use new features you have the required software and hardware  - not really a difficult concept

and note that millions and millions adnn\ millions of users use iPhoto '11 every day and love it - I upgraded soone after it was released and have had no problems - it is a great piece of software - at a great price

LN

There is no rip off and there is no "product cycle". Your iPhoto 09 continues to work as adverstised? There is no requirement for you to upgrade at all.  Versions from 2006 still run perfectly well on 10.8.

On the other hand, if you want more features then you pay for them.

As for the "reviews": This comes up from time to time on here. My response is always the same... Who are the reviewers? Do they know what they are talking about? I've seen people gove no and one star reviews to apps because they didn't like the icon.  I've seen one start reviews from people who state things that are simply incorrect - 'this app can't do x' when it can, but they never figured out how. In summary, the best thing about the internet is that everyone has an opinion. That's also the worst thing.

So before taking a review as gospel, you need to know the understanding and experience of the reviewer.

iPhoto 11 is a very powerful, slick piece of software. It mature and well engineered. It has some flaws, like any software, but at $15 for what it can do, it's very good value.

No  it would be accurate to say tt a very, very few users hae problems with iPhoto and that almost all of those few problems are easily fixed

LN

To condense this, the majority of owner complaints seem to have the same three problems:

1 - After installation some or all of the iPhoto data is corrupted, pictures are missing or the entire library is gone.

2 - Many, many complaints of how much slower '11 is compared to '09.

3 - The program is unstable and crashes often.

 

What does this have to do with getting Photo Stream?  It sound as if all you want to do is rant and rave. 

You asked how to be able to get to use Photo Stream and were told exactly how to do that.  So what's the problem.  Upgrade iPhoto or not.  If you don't want to upgrade then use a different method to share photos, Dropbox, ShutterFly, ......

What you're doing with those reviews is akin to judging the health of a community by what you observe in the local hospital's Emergency Room.  Not very accurate.

OT

The Mac App store reviews are the least useful reviews on the planet, frankly. Yes they are offered by flks who have bought the software but the key question is "what do they know"? I see lots of reviews saying things like iPhoto 11 trashed my library. However, I'm not sure that it did. The damage shows up after upgrading, but in a lot of cases that damage may well have been present in the library prior to upgrading, and the process of upgrading has exposed it. To the user that looks the same, but the cause is very different - and so is the solution. That's what I mean about the experience and knowledge of the reviewer.

Your own comments illustrate a case in point. You begin:

Since I didn't get a straight answer to iPhoto's problems

and though this is your second post you haven't identified any. You're now writing as though there are some sort of cohort of well-known "iPhoto problems" when none such exist. You've not pointed to a single one.

Then when you get to cases: The first thread illustrates my point again. A poster who says "iPhoto has lost all his photos" but then says, actually, it didn' lose any because he can still see them with Picasa. We then go through seven posts to get the key piece of information and finally a solution - well perhaps a solution as they never came back. And the likely cause of their issue: surfing the Library with a 3rd party app (Picasa) which uses a hack to do this, and therefore can cause damage.

The second thread is resolved with a re-install - so a faulty install was the problem.

The next is resolved by a rebuild.

The last one has two unrelated issues, one fixed by a rebuild and one by a reinstall.

There is no evidence in any of these threads of a problem with iPhoto 11, only that individuals have problems from time to time. They can be caused by any number of things. Your familiar with iPhoto 09. Have a search. See how many threads reference the same or similar problems in that.

Would it be accurate to say that when iPhoto '11 does have a problem, your options pretty much come down to create a new library and pray that you get your pictures back (or your time machine is working) or completely delete the application, dig out reciepts left behind and then reinstall this program (with the same hopes that time machine is working)?

It would be exactly as accurate to say exactly the same about iPhoto 09. With iPhoto 11 reinstalling is more simple and the safety for any data on your machine is a good, tested back up.

So, here's the thing. The problems that people report on here for iPhoto 11 are exactly the same ones they report on here for iPhoto 09 and iPhoto 07 etc etc etc. Most people never have a problem. There is no evidence that the cause of these issues lies solely with the app, but can be caused by a variety of reasons.