Hi
   Am fairly new to poser...I have version 4....tried  version 5 ....but it was soooo unstable I reverted back to 4.
 Was wondering  what version is most stable/problem free....dont have alot of money to spend trying out different versions so I was wondering if anyone could give me some actual user advice.....is  6 / 7 worth geting or is there issues with them also ?    I use photoshp / bryce / final cut / poser   for side work......need a version I can use and not have to fight with constantly. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated...
  Thanks

I have 4/5/6/7 :) Most of my usage went towards poser6 though. Ofcourse your computer will most likely be a factor in stability ;p but I crashed maybe 2 times in the 1 1/2 years I used it. All versions are a bit tempermental and it's a good idea to save often (but any program it's good to save often) and I just restart poser, clears up memory and runs good.

I hear a lot of complaints about 7, but it's new, and I haven't given it a good workout yet, mainly due to 7 isn't a huge addition in features over 6. Poser4 is good, but I can no longer live without material room that's in 5+, and 6 seems to be much more stable than 5 with a few more material room toys. 7 has ability to run on multicore computers finally for rendering, but that's really only feature that draws me, and I use carrara5pro for rendering which has network rendering as well, so didn't need a tool that's only 1/2 way, even though I still got it to play with ;p

So, in the end i'd choose poser6, but thats me :)

 Thanks for your insight  and prompt response After reading up on them I was kinda leaning towards 6 also....When purchasing it do I get all the fixes/patches/etc.....or do I have to hunt them down myself and install them ???? Sorry for all the questions... but.....I'm more of a user than a techie type...Have had enough of patching / hunting down fixes/   make me NOT want to use the programs  and thus killing the creative flow.
  Thanks again

What version is the most stable? 
Well as with most software the oldest version is usually the most stable since it's had years of patches, support, and shoring up. But for my money the best balance of stablity and features is anxcon said Poser 6. There are a couple patches for it that you may want to get.

First is the content updaters there are 2 of them I think, one for some stuff the default content was missing from the installer, the second would be the Poser 5 content. I don't think that they combined to 2 but they may have. You may be able to do without this if you're not expecting to use the default Poser 6 content too much. 

The second patch would be the service release, you do get all previous service releases with the latest one so you only need to download one of those. That can be found on EF's website, it's fairly easy to get to so I wouldn't be to concerned with getting it. 

So in short with 6 you can get away with 1 patch if you can live with some missing content for the P6 figures or if you only plan on using bought/existing content at the moment. 

hope this helps.

To me the ability to change my keyboard shortcuts was worth the upgrade to P7.

so the runtime pulldown, python scripts in a pulldown, right click selection menu, multiple undo, ability to make more cameras, improved hierarchy dialog, and so on  are all just bonus. 

P6 will give you the ability to undock and expand the library, as well as material collections (MAT pose replacement), point lights and other things i can barly remember now.

My Homepage - Free stuff and Galleries

I have P4, 5, 6 and 7 and haven't had any problems with any of them. I use mostly 6 and 7 now. Starting to use 7 more and more.

One thing to note is that Poser 6 is only available in the German & French version. I checked Content Paradise and E-Frontier and the English version is no longer listed.