I had some similar concerns about Vue 4 before I purchased, but I had to purchase because I like the images that are produce from it. Last weekend I purchase the sidegrade and planned to get the Pro Upgrade. I believe that there is endless possibilities with Vue, most of limits are on the artist. As for stability, with Windows XP SP2, I found that the Firewall should be turn off. Also large imported objects tend to cause problems.. I also notice that Vue gets really unstable after getting out of memory error and eventually after continue use it will crash. So if I get an out of memory error, I will save my work if not already and exit to Windows and restart Vue. Seams to work for me.