As far as I was aware, creating an album is just a list of shortcuts to the enclosed photos, not duplication. At least it is on iPhoto, not sure of Adobe's way. Of course, if you're using Picassa, then unfortunately I doubt there's never going to be an easy way for you to do this.
If you've got access to a Linux machine try F-Spot - it works very well with my iPhone running it under Ubuntu.
Also, chill out on the hatred for Apple. There's more to life
