Mark - in the for what it's worth category.....

I held off on installing DS 4, and DS 4.5 due to all posts with people having problems. I have installed 4.5 on 3 separate systems, 2 were upgrades and one was a new install. It's stable on all 3, and I haven't experienced any of the issues that others have had. I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that there are probably several thousand successful installs, we just here about the problems. I followed the instructions for upgrading very carefully to help ensure success.

Of course this doesn't mean that you won't have issues with 4.5, but the odds are very much in your favor that the upgrade will work without any issues. I just thought I'd relate my experiences should you want to upgrade. Paolo as implemented some nice new features in Reality 2.5, and for me it was worth the upgrade - in fact Reallity 2.5 was one of the main reasons I upgraded (plus I wanted to use the Carrara 8.5 beta and Genesis).

Having worked in IT for over 25 years now, the whole continual upgrade thing (and stuff breaking with newer versions) has gotten a bit old, so I fully understand  where you are coming from. I guess the bottom line here is that I'm glad I upgraded, I just wish in both instances I would have upgraded sooner. I just thought I'd throw this out as food for thought, but I also understand that your milage may vary.

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......