OK - yes, points taken. All good stuff.
And yes, I use Picasa for its speed too, as well as Aperture, Photoshop, and am also an ex-Lightroom user (now it's too slow). Whole different thread there...
The Retouch feature looks good.
Cropping is ho-hum - take it or leave it. I prefer to crop MY way....
Movie from photos? Gimmick at best. I'd never use it.
Montage? Like you - I never use it, but granted, some do.
Slider to reduce date range? Can't see when I'd use that.
But I WOULD have liked to see all the tweaks on a single panel instead of three tabs. And I would DEARLY love to see a noise filter of some type, a la Noise Ninja...
Maybe even an opening to allow plug-in architecture with compatibility for Photoshop-format plugins. There are many free plugins out there, and having an opening into Picasa to access them could be a good move, without spoiling the free program philosophy.
Those features may justify a major version number upgrade. How about calling this one 2.9 instead of 2.8 - I'll concede that much?
Heheh
But, as it's a free program, one can't be too demanding - just make suggestions.