Adobe Lightroom Export question

[Photog82]

That's what I was wondering, if other programs can read a XMP file that they didn't create. It's an Adobe product from what I can determine.

I still need to decide on what to do. Here's my edit process:

2012
>01 - January
>>11 (contains the JPGs)
>>>DNG (contains the LR edited RAW files, exported to DNG to keep the edits in tact)
>>>RAW (Original files)

What I could do:

2012
>01 - January
>>11 (contains the JPGs)
>>>RAW+XMP (Original files, with sidecar file that will contain the edits and LR will read it)

The reason I'm re-evaluating my original process is to save disk space.