1, If anybody cares, I stopped at C8.1 because I don't render humans or animals or any Daz content. I only render my own content as I am a modeling nut job. Based on my limited experience, I think a lot of people didn't want to pay the money up to 8.5 because the added value for the money wasn't practical. Then there were problems with 8.5 but I think they patched a lot of it. Unfortunately, I think it kind of soured people on it. People on the fence got kind of shy about upgrading due to the entanglements with C8.5 and how content was managed. That's sorta what I understand caused most people to hold back on 8.5. Bottom line, if you're getting results with what you have, there's no real reason to take a chance that things might get screwed up.

2, I think it's good to warn us about installing software that might mess up Carrara. I appreciate that information and I think it could help a lot of people avoid problems by taking steps to keep things straight (just in case).

3, Is Carrara dead? Well, if there is still a living community running it, it's alive. As a complete hobbyist who doesn't want to invest a big effort into learning a new package, I will probably run it until some version of Windows 1 billion won't run it anymore. Will we see C9? I don't have practical data to know for sure. Daz has no active links to C or Bryce from their front page. You have to very seriously hunt to get to it. That sends me a very hard message that C (and probably Bryce) is not going to be moved forward by Daz anymore. From a development point of view, dead. From a user point of view, we are still here and I'm still happy with it because I'm still making art with it that I love.

4, Since there are a few of us out here, there are content alternatives. A little patience can provide the time to find stuff. Plus, if it's a serious problem, I'll bet you can ask around and somebody will make a model for you. Content is out there in some form or another.

-Kix