I currently use the ON1 10 suite, mostly as plug-ins in Lightroom. However, the next version,
ON1 Photo RAW, due out shortly, is a full stand-alone (or plug-in too I think) RAW editor. But instead of storing non-destructive edits in a central catalog, it will produce and save sidecar files alongside the original RAW files. The idea is to make the system more portable.
I am not convinced I either need or want another RAW editor, or that sidecar files are the way to go. It is not yet clear whether we will have lens profiles, or how LR will play with ON1-edited RAW files (and their sidecars, if at all). Currently, if I go to ON1 as a plugin from LR, I create and edit a psd file, which can later be further edited in LR. This works reasonably well. I guess the same could be done after editing the RAW in ON1 if you needed to go back to LR.
It all sounds messy. There is not really enough information on ON1 Photo RAW available yet to know whether it is worthwhile, so I haven't pre-ordered the upgrade. Are there any ON1 users out there who have thoughts on this?