Like WTB, I've been away for a while, but not because of Poser. I invested in Windows 7 licences for my systems, only to watch the inevitable slow-down of all my computers. I grew increasing frustrated with waiting for my computer to be ready for me. And what was worse: all the really cool stuff happening in Blender wasn't being ported to Windows fast enough to suit me. I was making more and more coffee waiting for an excessively slow system and it sort-of just got to me.

So, I was actually compiling my latest svn-builds from trunk of Blender for a while, enjoying the latest bug-fixes and new cool features for Cycles and OSL... in Linux Mint. Now, I just get builds from ppa automatically... very current, much more so than Service Packs, certainly. And in Linux: no slow-downs, no waiting. No crashes. Intuitive, easy quick networking not just with my other Linux boxes but with all my Windows boxes here at home as well. I was working again, creating again, doing what I want to do, not what MS required me to do. Photoshop? I run in VirtualBox/Win7 (with almost all service turned off, so it actually runs like an OS should - sandboxed, it's fine).

The only reason I still dualboot is for Poser 2012, which I love and will upgrade when the new version becomes available. Poser requires hardware acceleration which VirtualBox still doesn't manage well.

What I find interesting is that in no uncertain terms, Poser's strength is the community. The 3rd-party apps. The fact that it isn't some monolithic "all-you-will-ever-need-is-already-built-in" program. This is actually something this proprietary software shares with the open-source world: the ability to massively extend and enhance the original product far beyond what the developers could have ever dreamt of, or would have the resources to develop if they did indeed dream of it.

How many are on the SM team? How many can you think of that have written brilliant add-ons (for pay or for free) that make Poser what it is today?

I'll submit that this extensibility is the main attraction of Poser to me, to the extent that it is extensible. To the degree it isn't (Firefly and the current limitations of one render engine natively) Poser does still use an open format (OBJ) for mesh and because overall the "Pose" bit is reasonably easy to use makes Poser a great initial part of workflow that does include the use of other apps to generate a final image.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks