I never owned P4 or PP, so I can't compare there,but Poser 5 isn't for everyone, that's certain. Reading the posts is helpful as it will help one decide if you should get it or not. Most of the problems being experienced with P5 seem to be OS or hardware related it. I recently upgraded to SR3 and added another 512 ram to a 1.7ghz PIV running XP Pro. I now have 1G of ram and it runs a lot smoother than it did previously. Xp does manage memory way better than W98. I can't imagine using P5 on a Windows 9x machine. Some have been able to make it work, but my guess is they are in the minority. P5 does demand a lot of resources. Consequently, I don't think CL should have recommended P5 be run on a machine that does not have XP or Windows 2000 or at anything less than 512 ram (256 would be an absolute minimum) I read those ridiculous minimum requirements on the box after I got it and installed it and laughed! I've also noticed that people with 3 ghz machines and the new HT systems and tons of ram are also seeing some issues. Poser 5 seems to run best on 1.5-2.8 ghz PIV machines with 1-2 G of ram, running XP Pro. Other issues that people have are related to some unresolved "bugs" or "limitations" in the program that have to do with lights, textures, etc. Those can be identified and "worked around" following some of the tips posted by Yaensen here and over at RDNA and Poser Pros.