Hi Joe !

I can understand your situation... I also had a few VUE troubles on "big" projects, and sometimes I even think that I should use it only for personal stuff.
But VUE is not so "buggy". I had a few crashes, some problems updating, nothing more.
Honestly, if you have so many problems, they come from your "freakin pc" and bloody "OPEN GL".

You should run VUE on a Athlon or Pentium III/IV processor with a faster processor. I did a test with my old PC and VUE was crashing all the time.
Getting a new PC is surely the answer your looking for...
With 1.4 GHz and 1 Gb of Ram, VUE 4.05 will run smoothly. Install windows 2000 or XP, they are more stable than 98 and Millenium. A "pro" graphic card is surely useful, but not necessary (I don't have one and won't get one !). Be also careful when you install/uninstall drivers, hardware and softwares. Many operating systems problems are caused by this.

If the job deal is good, don't let anything stop you ! PCs are very cheap now, for less than $1K you can find a very powerfull machine...

Eric