[silkstone]

Does it work like Lightroom? LR compiles a massive database which also contains editing data (original RAW files are not altered), but you can opt also to save editing data to an XMP sidecar file, and that generates one XMP for each RAW file. Provided you keep the two together, you can port the files between machines and LR will pick up the edits from the sidecars. In other words, you're not relying wholly on the database.